Host-pathogen interactions under pressure: a systematic review
and meta-analysis of stress-mediated effects on disease dynamics
Amanda Vicente-Santos1*, Beatriz
Willink2,3,4, Kacy Nowak5, David J.
Civitello1,6, and Thomas R.
Gillespie1,5,7*
1Program of Population Biology, Ecology, and
Evolution, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
2Department of Zoology, Stockholm University,
Stockholm 106-91, Sweden
3Department of Biological Sciences, National
University of Singapore, Singapore 117558, Singapore
4School of Biology, University of Costa Rica, San José
11501-2060, Costa Rica
5Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of
Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
6 Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
30322, USA
7Department of Environmental Sciences, Emory
University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
*Correspondence: Amanda Vicente-Santos. Sutton Hall 212,
Biology Department, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA
amanda.vicente@ou.edu
Tel. +1(404) 276-9990; and
Thomas R. Gillespie. 400 Dowman Drive, Suite E510, Environmental
Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
thomas.gillespie@emory.edu
Tel: +1(404) 727-7926
Running title: Stress-mediated effects on disease dynamics
Keywords : resource limitation, environmental stress, pollution,
survival, fecundity, infectivity, epidemiological models
Email addresses:amanda.vicente@ou.edu,
beatriz.willink@zoologi.su.se,
kkacy.nnowak@gmail.com,
david.james.civitello@emory.edu,
thomas.gillespie@emory.edu
Statement of authorship: AVS conceived the study. AVS, BW, DJC,
and TRG designed the project and plans for data collection. AVS, BW, and
KN collected data. AVS, BW, KN, and DJC analyzed the data. AVS, BW, and
DJC designed figures and tables with inputs from all authors. AVS and
DJC conceived and created the models. AVS, BW, and TRG drafted the
manuscript. All authors revised and edited the manuscript for
intellectual content.
Data accessibility statement: Data is available from the Dryad
Digital Repository (doi:10.5061/dryad.zw3r228cd).
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in text box 2 (134) ; number of references (123) ;
number of figures (5) ; number of tables (0) ; number of
text boxes (2)
Abstract: Human activities have increased the intensity and
frequency of natural stressors and created novel stressors, altering
host-pathogen interactions, and changing the risk of emerging infectious
diseases. Despite the ubiquity of such anthropogenic impacts, predicting
the directionality of outcomes has proven challenging. Here, we conduct
a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the primary
mechanisms through which stressors affect host-pathogen interactions and
to evaluate the impacts stress has on host fitness (survival and
fecundity) and pathogen infectivity (prevalence and intensity). We
assessed 893 effect sizes from 71 host species (representing seven
taxonomic groups) and 78 parasite taxa from 98 studies. We found that
infected and uninfected hosts had similar sensitivity to stressors and
that responses varied according to stressor type. Specifically, limited
resources compromised host fecundity and decreased pathogen intensity,
while abiotic environmental stressors (e.g., temperature and salinity)
decreased host survivorship and increased pathogen intensity, and
pollution increased mortality but decreased pathogen prevalence. We then
used our meta-analysis results to develop Susceptible-Infected
theoretical models to illustrate scenarios where infection rates are
expected to increase or decrease in response to resource limitation or
environmental stress gradients. Our results carry implications for
conservation and disease emergence and reveal areas for future work.