Reposted by Santiago Elena
Carrasco, @christinatoft.bsky.social & @sfelena.bsky.social reveal host age structure is a major ecological driver of virulence evolution, shaping trade-offs between disease progression and severity and determining specialization vs. generalism.
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Evolution of virulence of a plant RNA virus in developmental stage-structured host populations
Abstract. Natural host populations are age-structured, and developmental stages differ in susceptibility and within-host pathogen dynamics, potentially imp