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VALIDATION. "But the host will benefit from suicide, if by its death (and that of its parasite) the level of subsequent parasitism in its kin is reduced relative to that in non-kin. Here we report that pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) parasitized by the braconid wasp Aphidius ervi, exhibit apparent suicidal behaviour in response to both aphid alarm pheromone and approaching coccinellid (ladybird beetle) predators. We believe this to be the first convincing evidence in support of the host suicide hypothesis." https://lnkd.in/dnVKjrQ View in LinkedIn

SEX AND EFFICIENCY. "Evolutionary theory predicts that natural selection should be less efficient in asexually than in sexually reproducing organisms. Obligate asexuals are expected to adapt slowly to changing environments and to accumulate mildly deleterious mutations to their genomes, potentially explaining their typically short evolutionary lifespans." https://lnkd.in/dgGXaM6 View in LinkedIn

APHID ADAPTIVE SUICIDE. "The host suicide hypothesis, which derives from inclusive fitness theory, postulates that parasitized individuals in spatially aggregated populations consisting of close kin may actively enhance their probability of dying. The fitness cost associated with suicide becomes negligible when infection by a parasitoid causes the expected reproduction of the host to approach zero." https://lnkd.in/dnVKjrQ View in LinkedIn

INCREASED HOST FITNESS. "Host suicide will increase the inclusive fitness of the host if (1) the suicide prevents the maturation of the parasite; (2) the mature parasite is more likely to infect the host's kin than nonkin; and (3) the benefit to the host, in terms of the increased fitness of the kin, is greater than the cost of the suicide, measured in terms of the loss of the host's own reproductive fitness." https://lnkd.in/dzrwDbd View in LinkedIn

"HOST SUICIDE is the term coined to describe aberrant behavior on the part of an infected host which leads to increased probability of death by predation." https://lnkd.in/dzrwDbd View in LinkedIn

"ADAPTIVE IMMUNITY provides a direct benefit to the host organism that possesses the immune mechanism and thus does not require population structure to evolve. There are, however, instances when population structure favors fixation of adaptive immunity through a mechanism analogous to the one observed for altruistic suicide." https://lnkd.in/d9zsv9R View in LinkedIn

INHIBITORS OF HOST DEATH. "Numerous viruses indeed have evolved mechanisms preventing host cell death, often by recruiting genes involved in host suicide and turning them into competitive inhibitors of cell death or else via repair of the damage involved in cell death." Cunning strategy. https://lnkd.in/d9zsv9R View in LinkedIn

"REDUCED VIRULENCE is the most likely evolutionary outcome under conditions of low pathogen dispersal, whereas intermediate dispersal rates can lead to high virulence. It is therefore plausible that, in structured populations, the host-pathogen arms race has a major effect on the genes involved in cell death and its inhibition." https://lnkd.in/d9zsv9R View in LinkedIn

SUICIDE AVERSION. "It has been shown that experimental evolution of phages under conditions of local dispersion leads to ‘prudent’ (less virulent) variants of the virus, in contrast to the virulent forms evolved in a well-mixed environment." https://lnkd.in/d9zsv9R View in LinkedIn

NON-ALIGNED INTERESTS. "The results of the present model of suicide evolution reveal an antagonism between the ‘interests’ of hosts and pathogens in structured populations whereby, while hosts tend to evolve suicide, prevention of host death is the preferred strategy for the pathogen." https://lnkd.in/d9zsv9R View in LinkedIn