Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, USA.
Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts-Boston, Boston, MA, USA.
Science. 2018 Mar 30;359(6383):1517-1519. doi: 10.1126/science.aao4806.
Infectious diseases rarely end in extinction. Yet the mechanisms that explain how epidemics subside are difficult to pinpoint. We investigated host-pathogen interactions after the emergence of a lethal fungal pathogen in a tropical amphibian assemblage. Some amphibian host species are recovering, but the pathogen is still present and is as pathogenic today as it was almost a decade ago. In addition, some species have defenses that are more effective now than they were before the epidemic. These results suggest that host recoveries are not caused by pathogen attenuation and may be due to shifts in host responses. Our findings provide insights into the mechanisms underlying disease transitions, which are increasingly important to understand in an era of emerging infectious diseases and unprecedented global pandemics.
传染病很少会灭绝。然而，解释疫情如何平息的机制却很难确定。我们研究了热带两栖动物群中一种致命真菌病原体出现后的宿主-病原体相互作用。一些两栖动物宿主物种正在恢复，但病原体仍然存在，而且其致病性与近十年前一样强。此外，一些物种的防御能力现在比疫情前更强。这些结果表明，宿主的恢复不是由病原体衰减引起的，可能是由于宿主反应的转变。我们的研究结果为疾病转变的机制提供了深入了解，这在传染病和前所未有的全球大流行时代变得越来越重要。
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