Host functional traits as the nexus for multilevel infection patterns

Zheng Y X Huang; Fletcher W Halliday; Daniel J Becker

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2023.08.011

Host functional traits as the nexus for multilevel infection patterns

Trends Ecol Evol. 2023 Dec;38(12):1125-1128. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2023.08.011. Epub 2023 Sep 6.

Authors

Zheng Y X Huang¹, Fletcher W Halliday², Daniel J Becker³

Affiliations

¹ School of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, 210023 Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. Electronic address: zhengyxhuang@gmail.com.
² Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland; Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.
³ Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA. Electronic address: danbeck@ou.edu.

PMID: 37684132
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2023.08.011

Abstract

Understanding pathogen transmission and infection patterns at multiple biological scales is a central issue in disease ecology and evolution. Here, we suggest that functional traits of host species readily affect infection patterns of species, communities, and landscapes, and thus serve as a linkage for multilevel studies of infectious disease.

Keywords: community functional structure; community weighted mean; disease ecology; functional divergence; host competence; host exposure.

MeSH terms

Ecology*
Phenotype