TY - JOUR
T1 - The network structure and eco-evolutionary dynamics of CRISPR-induced immune diversification
AU - Pilosof, Shai
AU - Alcalá-Corona, Sergio A
AU - Wang, Tong
AU - Kim, Ted
AU - Maslov, Sergei
AU - Whitaker, Rachel
AU - Pascual, Mercedes
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank W. England and M. Pauly for data processing and collection and Q. He for guidance on the construction of the phylogenetic trees from the model outputs. R.W. acknowledges the support of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (no. CFF C2480) and an Allen Distinguished Investigator Award from the Allen Frontiers Institute. M.P. acknowledges the support of the University of Chicago. We are grateful for the access to the computer cluster of the Research Computing Center of the University of Chicago.
PY - 2020/12
Y1 - 2020/12
N2 - As a heritable sequence-specific adaptive immune system, CRISPR-Cas is a powerful force shaping strain diversity in host-virus systems. While the diversity of CRISPR alleles has been explored, the associated structure and dynamics of host-virus interactions have not. We explore the role of CRISPR in mediating the interplay between host-virus interaction structure and eco-evolutionary dynamics in a computational model and compare the results with three empirical datasets from natural systems. We show that the structure of the networks describing who infects whom and the degree to which strains are immune, are respectively modular (containing groups of hosts and viruses that interact strongly) and weighted-nested (specialist hosts are more susceptible to subsets of viruses that in turn also infect the more generalist hosts with many spacers matching many viruses). The dynamic interplay between these networks influences transitions between dynamical regimes of virus diversification and host control. The three empirical systems exhibit weighted-nested immunity networks, a pattern our theory shows is indicative of hosts able to suppress virus diversification. Previously missing from studies of microbial host-pathogen systems, the immunity network plays a key role in the coevolutionary dynamics.
AB - As a heritable sequence-specific adaptive immune system, CRISPR-Cas is a powerful force shaping strain diversity in host-virus systems. While the diversity of CRISPR alleles has been explored, the associated structure and dynamics of host-virus interactions have not. We explore the role of CRISPR in mediating the interplay between host-virus interaction structure and eco-evolutionary dynamics in a computational model and compare the results with three empirical datasets from natural systems. We show that the structure of the networks describing who infects whom and the degree to which strains are immune, are respectively modular (containing groups of hosts and viruses that interact strongly) and weighted-nested (specialist hosts are more susceptible to subsets of viruses that in turn also infect the more generalist hosts with many spacers matching many viruses). The dynamic interplay between these networks influences transitions between dynamical regimes of virus diversification and host control. The three empirical systems exhibit weighted-nested immunity networks, a pattern our theory shows is indicative of hosts able to suppress virus diversification. Previously missing from studies of microbial host-pathogen systems, the immunity network plays a key role in the coevolutionary dynamics.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41559-020-01312-z
DO - 10.1038/s41559-020-01312-z
M3 - Article
C2 - 33077929
SN - 2397-334X
VL - 4
SP - 1650
EP - 1660
JO - Nature Ecology and Evolution
JF - Nature Ecology and Evolution
IS - 12
ER -