Faculty of Science
Microbiology and Immunology

Transmission heterogeneity emerges from uncoupled parasite shedding and spreading

A schematic of disease transmission

Publication Date

Publication Journal

Current Biology

Author(s)

Luis M. Silva, Dominik Vinopal, Victoria G. Choi, Tommy J. Travers-Cook, and Kayla C. King

Disease transmission is highly heterogeneous, yet is often classified based on a single host trait. In this study, the authors investigated interactions between Caenorhabditis nematodes and a wild bacterial parasite to understand the effects of different components of the infection cycle on disease transmission. They found that parasite shedding alone did not predict downstream infection success, indicating that transmission is shaped by multiple ecological bottlenecks.

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Microbiology and Immunology

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