Speaker
Chris Illingworth
Description
Evolutionary processes in infectious disease occur on a variety of
scales, from that of the single cell to that of global populations. At the
level of within-host infection, absolute viral populations are typically
large, such that selection acting on a population might be expected to
lead to repeatable and deterministic patterns of evolution. We describe
three exceptions to this behaviour. Firstly, examining the evolution of
the influenza virus, we describe a case of chaotic short-term evolution,
where small differences in the initial state of the population lead to
substantially different pathways to adaptation. Secondly, considering
data describing the within-host evolution of HIV, we consider the
extent to which the fitness landscape is host-specific, such that distinct
patterns of evolution are observed within each individual. Finally, we
present work on the consequences of mutational load for viral
adaptation, showing how variation in the genetic background upon
which a beneficial mutation arises has both systematic and stochastic
effects upon its fate.
Primary author
Chris Illingworth
