Integrative and Comparative Biology Advance Access originally published online on June 1, 2007
Integrative and Comparative Biology 2007 47(2):310-316; doi:10.1093/icb/icm006
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Host resource supplies influence the dynamics and outcome of infectious disease
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045
Correspondence: 1E-mail: vsmith{at}ku.edu
Pathogens and their host organisms share a wide range of resource needs that are required to support normal metabolism and growth. Because the development of infectious disease on or within the host involves the processes of invasion and resource consumption, competition for growth-limiting resources potentially may occur between pathogens and cellular or sub-cellular components of the host ecosystem. Examples from the plant, animal, and microbiological literature provide unambiguous evidence that external resource supplies to the host organism can have profound effects on the outcome of infection by a broad diversity of bacterial, fungal, metazoan, protozoan, and viral pathogens.
From the symposium "Ecological Dimorphisms in Vertebrates: Proximate and Ultimate Causes" presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, January 3–7, 2007, at Phoenix, Arizona.