ArticlePLoS biology2014
Natural selection on individual variation in tolerance of gastrointestinal nematode infection.
Article in PLoS biology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 52 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
52 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Sparse evidence for selection on phenotypic plasticity in response to temperature.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2019Pooled it
- Social status, immune response and parasitism in males: a meta-analysis.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2015Pooled it
- Co-infection with a viral pathogen (Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus) tended to improve host tolerance but significantly enhanced resistance to Heligmosomoides bakeri.Veterinary research communications · 2026Article
- Application of Microbiome Feedback Theory to Animals: Can Parasites Drive Coexistence in Ungulate Communities?Integrative and comparative biology · 2025Article
- Adaptive potential in the face of a transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils.Molecular ecology · 2024Article
- Host resources and parasite traits interact to determine the optimal combination of host parasite-mitigation strategies.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- No correlative evidence of costs of infection or immunity on leucocyte telomere length in a wild population of Soay sheep.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Article
- Amphibian infection tolerance to chytridiomycosis.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
- The cost of host genetic resistance on body condition: Evidence from divergently selected sheep.Evolutionary applications · 2022Article
- Shifting focus from resistance to disease tolerance: A review on hybrid house mice.Ecology and evolution · 2022Review
- Evolution of pathogen tolerance and emerging infections: A missing experimental paradigm.eLife · 2021Review
- Reconstructing contact network structure and cross-immunity patterns from multiple infection histories.PLoS computational biology · 2021Article
- Host population structure for tolerance determines the evolution of plant-virus interactions.The New phytologist · 2021Article
- Levels of pathogen virulence and host resistance both shape the antibody response to an emerging bacterial disease.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Embracing nature's complexity: Immunoparasitology in the wild.Seminars in immunology · 2021Review
- Genetic parameters for worm resistance in Santa Inês sheep using the Bayesian animal model.Animal bioscience · 2021Article
- Non-hierarchical cluster analysis for determination of resistance to worm infection in meat sheep.Tropical animal health and production · 2020Article
- Parasite intensity drives fetal development and sex allocation in a wild ungulate.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Ecology eclipses phylogeny as a major driver of nematode parasite community structure in a graminivorous primate.Functional ecology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Hosts may mitigate the impact of parasites by two broad strategies: resistance, which limits parasite burden, and tolerance, which limits the fitness or health cost of increasing parasite burden. The degree and causes of variation in both resistance and tolerance are expected to influence host-parasite evolutionary and epidemiological dynamics and inform disease management, yet very little empirical work has addressed tolerance in wild vertebrates. Here, we applied random regression models to longitudinal data from an unmanaged population of Soay sheep to estimate individual tolerance, defined as the rate of decline in body weight with increasing burden of highly prevalent gastrointestinal nematode parasites. On average, individuals lost weight as parasite burden increased, but whereas some lost weight slowly as burden increased (exhibiting high tolerance), other individuals lost weight significantly more rapidly (exhibiting low tolerance). We then investigated associations between tolerance and fitness using selection gradients that accounted for selection on correlated traits, including body weight. We found evidence for positive phenotypic selection on tolerance: on average, individuals who lost weight more slowly with increasing parasite burden had higher lifetime breeding success. This variation did not have an additive genetic basis. These results reveal that selection on tolerance operates under natural conditions. They also support theoretical predictions for the erosion of additive genetic variance of traits under strong directional selection and fixation of genes conferring tolerance. Our findings provide the first evidence of selection on individual tolerance of infection in animals and suggest practical applications in animal and human disease management in the face of highly prevalent parasites.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.