On the possible role of robustness in the evolution of infectious diseases

Robustness describes the capacity for a biological system to remain canalized despite perturbation. Genetic robustness affords maintenance of phenotype despite mutational input, necessarily involving the role of epistasis. Environmental robustness is phenotypic constancy in the face of environmental...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chaos (Woodbury, N.Y.) N.Y.), 2010-06, Vol.20 (2), p.026108-026108-9
Main Authors: Ogbunugafor, C. Brandon, Pease, James B., Turner, Paul E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bacteriophage phi 6 - genetics
Biological Evolution
Communicable Diseases - genetics
Disease Outbreaks
Drug Resistance, Bacterial - genetics
Environment
Focus Issue: Genetic Interactions
Humans
Malaria - parasitology
Models, Genetic
Mutation
Nonlinear Dynamics
RNA Viruses - genetics
RNA Viruses - radiation effects
Ultraviolet Rays
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Summary:Robustness describes the capacity for a biological system to remain canalized despite perturbation. Genetic robustness affords maintenance of phenotype despite mutational input, necessarily involving the role of epistasis. Environmental robustness is phenotypic constancy in the face of environmental variation, where epistasis may be uninvolved. Here we discuss genetic and environmental robustness, from the standpoint of infectious disease evolution, and suggest that robustness may be a unifying principle for understanding how different disease agents evolve. We focus especially on viruses with RNA genomes due to their importance in the evolution of emerging diseases and as model systems to test robustness theory. We present new data on adaptive constraints for a model RNA virus challenged to evolve in response to UV radiation. We also draw attention to other infectious disease systems where robustness theory may prove useful for bridging evolutionary biology and biomedicine, especially the evolution of antibiotic resistance in bacteria, immune evasion by influenza, and malaria parasite infections.
ISSN:1054-1500
1089-7682
1089-7682
1054-1500
DOI:10.1063/1.3455189