Characteristics of hosts and parasites have a genetic basis, and thus can be shaped by
coevolution. Infections measured under laboratory conditions have shown that the …

Immune function is likely to be a critical determinant of an organism's fitness, yet most
natural animal and plant populations exhibit tremendous genetic variation for immune traits …

Host resources can drive the optimal parasite exploitation strategy by offering a good or a
poor environment to pathogens. Hosts living in resource‐rich habitats might offer a …

The infection process of many diseases can be divided into series of steps, each one
required to successfully complete the parasite's life and transmission cycle. This approach …

Victims of infection are expected to suffer increasingly as parasite population growth
increases. Yet, under some conditions, faster-growing parasites do not appear to cause …

The maintenance of genetic variation for infection‐related traits is often attributed to
coevolution between hosts and parasites, but it can also be maintained by environmental …

Seasonal epidemics erupt commonly in nature and are driven by numerous mechanisms.
Here, we suggest a new mechanism that could determine the size and timing of seasonal …

Parasite‐induced changes in host phenotype are now well‐documented from a wide range
of taxa. There is a growing body of evidence indicating that parasites can also have trans …

Complex life cycles are common in free-living and parasitic organisms alike. The adaptive
decoupling hypothesis postulates that separate life cycle stages have a degree of …

Activation of the immune system is beneficial in defending against pathogens, but may also
have costly side effects on an organism's fitness. In this study we examine the fitness …