An evolutionary attractor is a state toward which evolution tends. Most often it means that adaptation is moving a population of a species towards a particular goal – that goal is the attractor. It less commonly means any other outcome of evolution and/or a larger group than one population.
Attractors are important to evolutionary epidemiology because what goal a pathogen is pursuing – and its speed of progress towards more transmissible and/or more virulent attractors – radically alter the actual damage a pathogen will do. It also shapes the course of a species invasion.
References
- ^ Precigout, Pierre; Robert, Corinne; Claessen, David (2020). "Adaptation of Biotrophic Leaf Pathogens to Fertilization-Mediated Changes in Plant Traits: A Comparison of the Optimization Principle to Invasion Fitness". Ecology and Epidemiology. Phytopathology. 110 (5). American Phytopathological Society (APS): 1039–1048. doi:10.1094/PHYTO-08-19-0317-R. PMID 31928514.
- ^ Chapwanya, M.; Matusse, A.; Dumont, Y. (2021). "On synergistic co-infection in crop diseases. The case of the Maize Lethal Necrosis Disease". Applied Mathematical Modelling. 90. Elsevier: 912–942. doi:10.1016/j.apm.2020.09.036. hdl:2263/79514.
- Fabre, Frederic; Burie, Jean-Baptiste; Ducrot, Arnaud; Lion, Sebastien; Richard, Quentin; Demasse, Ramses (2022). "An epi-evolutionary model for predicting the adaptation of spore-producing pathogens to quantitative resistance in heterogeneous environments". Evolutionary Applications. 15 (1). John Wiley & Sons Ltd.: 95–110. doi:10.1111/eva.13328. PMC 8792485. PMID 35126650.
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