NIH R01 · 2025
Reciprocal genetics of recently-evolved vertebrate immunity and helminth counter-adaptation
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Vertebrates evolved sophisticated immune systems to eliminate infections by helminth parasites (tapeworms, nematodes). Nevertheless, helminths often succeed in establishing persistent infections because they evolved strategies to evade or manipulate their host’s immune system. Because of this host- parasite co-evolution, infection success is expected to depend on an epistatic interaction between host immune genes and parasites’ immune-evasion genes. But, the immunogenetic mechanisms underlying this between-species epistasis remains poorly understood, because most studies focus on immunological effects of either host genes, or parasite genes, studied separately. Few…
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