from a Nobel prize winner, old statement but likely still relevant today:
Emerging Infections: An Evolutionary Perspective
Joshua Lederberg
The Rockefeller University, New York, New York, USA
Our relationship to infectious pathogens is part of an evolutionary drama (1). Here we are; here are the bugs. They are looking for food; we are their meat. How do we compete? They reproduce so quickly, and there are so many of them. They tolerate vast fluctuations of population size as part of their natural history; a fluctuation of 1% in our population size is a major catastrophe. Microbes have enormous potential mechanisms of genetic diversity. We are different from them in every respect. Their numbers, rapid fluctuations, and amenability to genetic change give them tools for adaptation that far outpace what we can generate on any short-term basis.
So why are we still here? With very rare exceptions, our microbial adversaries have a shared interest in our survival. With very few exceptions (none among the viruses, a few among the bacteria, perhaps the clostridial spore-forming toxin producers), almost any pathogen reaches a dead end when its host is dead. Truly severe host-pathogen interactions historically have resulted in elimination of both species. We are the contingent survivors of such encounters because of this shared interest.
Emerging Infections: An Evolutionary Perspective
Joshua Lederberg
The Rockefeller University, New York, New York, USA
Our relationship to infectious pathogens is part of an evolutionary drama (1). Here we are; here are the bugs. They are looking for food; we are their meat. How do we compete? They reproduce so quickly, and there are so many of them. They tolerate vast fluctuations of population size as part of their natural history; a fluctuation of 1% in our population size is a major catastrophe. Microbes have enormous potential mechanisms of genetic diversity. We are different from them in every respect. Their numbers, rapid fluctuations, and amenability to genetic change give them tools for adaptation that far outpace what we can generate on any short-term basis.
So why are we still here? With very rare exceptions, our microbial adversaries have a shared interest in our survival. With very few exceptions (none among the viruses, a few among the bacteria, perhaps the clostridial spore-forming toxin producers), almost any pathogen reaches a dead end when its host is dead. Truly severe host-pathogen interactions historically have resulted in elimination of both species. We are the contingent survivors of such encounters because of this shared interest.
