A conference by Sergi Valverde within the frame of the CRM Workshop Workshop on Virus Dynamics and Evolution.
Given the threat of infectious diseases, we need a better understanding of the evolution of infectious organisms and their hosts. However, gaining greater insight into host-parasite coevolution and in particular the factors that generate and maintain diversity is challenging for a number of reasons. How ecological feedbacks, genetic systems, and infection processes interact to generate and maintain variation in hosts and parasites remains an open question. Given the diversity of microbial communities, traditional analyses fail to characterise the interaction patterns between microbes and viruses. For example, which phages infect and exploit which hosts in complex communities? Answering this is essential to understand the influence of viruses at the ecosystem level. In a recent study, we combined network theory with empirical data to study the interactions of phages and bacteria as networks rather than as isolated interactions Check the Slides.