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Co-evolution of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Homo sapiens.
Journal article

Co-evolution of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Homo sapiens.

  • Brites D Department of Medical Parasitology and Infection Biology, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
  • Gagneux S
  • 2015-02-24
Published in:
  • Immunological reviews. - 2015
adaptation
host
pathogen
selection
virulence
Adaptation, Biological
Animals
Biological Evolution
Disease Susceptibility
Genetic Drift
Genome, Bacterial
Host-Pathogen Interactions
Humans
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Phylogeny
Time Factors
Tuberculosis
Virulence
English The causative agent of human tuberculosis (TB), Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is an obligate pathogen that evolved to exclusively persist in human populations. For M. tuberculosis to transmit from person to person, it has to cause pulmonary disease. Therefore, M. tuberculosis virulence has likely been a significant determinant of the association between M. tuberculosis and humans. Indeed, the evolutionary success of some M. tuberculosis genotypes seems at least partially attributable to their increased virulence. The latter possibly evolved as a consequence of human demographic expansions. If co-evolution occurred, humans would have counteracted to minimize the deleterious effects of M. tuberculosis virulence. The fact that human resistance to infection has a strong genetic basis is a likely consequence of such a counter-response. The genetic architecture underlying human resistance to M. tuberculosis remains largely elusive. However, interactions between human genetic polymorphisms and M. tuberculosis genotypes have been reported. Such interactions are consistent with local adaptation and allow for a better understanding of protective immunity in TB. Future 'genome-to-genome' studies, in which locally associated human and M. tuberculosis genotypes are interrogated in conjunction, will help identify new protective antigens for the development of better TB vaccines.
Language
  • English
Open access status
hybrid
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/63904
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