Building on the unique strengths of the fruit fly Drosophila, complimented by quantitative meta-analyses and evolutionary epidemiological modelling, Dr. Pedro Vale shall address three questions that are key to our understanding of the underlying causes of individual variation in host tolerance to viral infection, and the consequences of this variation for viral spread and evolution: (i) what is the genetic basis of variation in the tolerance of viral infection? (ii) does tolerance of infection lead to an increased risk of disease transmission? and (iii) how does tolerance of infection affect viral evolution? This knowledge may be especially useful to inform on the potential long-term consequences of disease control strategies such as anti-virulence drugs that, by reducing disease without eliminating pathogens, are essentially tolerance-boosting therapies.
