Host adaptations on the molecular and transcriptional level driven by a fast evolving pathogen

Professor Dr. Simone Sommer

Postdoc: Nina Schwensow 

Under natural conditions, pathogens are strong selective forces that drive coevolutionary processes. Studies on selective mechanisms in host species largely concentrated on analyses of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) sequence variation but did not take variance in the expression levels of MHC and other immunologically relevant genes into account. This might be of evolutionary importance, in particular in response to fast evolving viruses. But how viruses remodel the host’s gene expression patterns and the genetic Coevolutionary processes: rabbit – RHDV 2 constitution of host populations is still elusive. We aim to investigate the adaptive variance on the structural and transcriptional level of immunologically relevant genes caused by a severe contagious viral infection, using both experimental and field approaches. Our model, the rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) raging in European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) provides ideal preconditions for this purpose due to already available genomic data. Gene expression profiling via microarrays and qRT-PCR will discover candidate gene expression patterns involved in immune responses. This changes the focus from a few to thousands of genes and multiple regulatory mechanisms. It allows us to test current selection hypotheses in more detail to improve our understanding of causes and processes of evolutionary adaptations between hosts and pathogens.