Social context alters host behavior and infection risk

Variation in infection risk and transmission potential are widespread in human and wildlife diseases and play a central role in host-pathogen dynamics. To explain this variation, most studies focus on linking host traits to differences in pathogen exposure, infection, and transmission, but typically do not to account for hosts’ social context. Yet, an individual’s risk of acquiring infection is likely influenced jointly by their own traits and their social environment. Here, we use three natural genotypes of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to test how variation in pathogen transmission is linked to differences in host behavior and social context. We constructed groups of 12 flies from one of three different genotypes and five different sex ratios (0%, 33%, 50%, 67%, or 100% female) in a fully factorial design. To each group we added a male or female “primary case” fly that had been exposed to the generalist fungal entomopathogen Metarhizium robertsii. We then recorded groups’ aggr...人类与野生动物疾病中，感染风险与传播潜能的变异普遍存在，并在宿主-病原体动态过程中发挥核心作用。为解释该变异，多数研究聚焦于关联宿主性状与病原体暴露、感染及传播的差异，但通常未考量宿主的社会背景。然而，个体的感染风险大概率同时受自身性状与社会环境的共同影响。本研究以三种自然基因型的黑腹果蝇（Drosophila melanogaster）为实验对象，探究病原体传播变异与宿主行为、社会背景差异之间的关联。我们采用完全因子实验设计，构建了由12只果蝇组成的组群，分别来自三种不同基因型，并设置五种不同性别比例（0%、33%、50%、67%或100%雌性）。向每组群中接入一只经广谱昆虫病原真菌罗伯茨绿僵菌（Metarhizium robertsii）暴露的“原发感染个体”雄蝇或雌蝇。随后我们记录了各组的aggr...