Welcome to the IPA team website
Parasitic Interactions & Adaptations

Team Leader: Christine CHEVILLON

Our research examines the ecology and evolution of host-parasite interactions focusing specifically on the question: How do parasites adapt to spatial and temporal heterogeneity in their environment ? All team members work with model systems for which we can easily combine field-derived inferences on the functioning of transmission hot-spots with experimental infections for hypothesis testing.
 
Current projects developed in the team involve three main model systems:

(i) Plasmodium relictum-Culex pipiens-birds: This model is currently the only non-human experimental malaria system enabling us to test explicit hypotheses concerning the interaction between host resistance and vectoral competence using natural combinations of parasites, vectors and hosts.

(ii) Ticks and tick-borne disease: Several models of medical (borreliosis) and veterinary (babesiosis, tropical cattle ticks) significance are studied. Current work focuses largely on field-based inferences with explicit consideration of the spatial context of parasitic adaptations to their hosts (ticks and transmitted pathogens) and the way in which these adaptations may modify the local transmission ecology and host population structure.

(iii) Aedes aegypti - Dengue Flaviviruses: This system is examined under different epidemiological contexts (endemic and epidemic transmission) and mechanisms of viral microevolution are examined using molecular evolutionary approaches and by genetically characterising the interaction among different viruses and their mosquito vectors.

 
The team members are also involved in other projects (see personal pages for more information).
 
Team members
Team Publications
 
Web page: Working Group "Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases"
Web page: Réseau Ecologie des Interactions Durables
 
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