Why are parasites so interesting?
Date:
Monday, October 3, 2011 16:45 - 17:45
Speaker:
Paul Schmid-Hempel (ETH Zurich)
Location:
Raiffeisen Lecture Hall, Central Building
Series:
Institute colloquium
Contact:
Hetzenauer Irene
The role of parasitism in natural population has become re-considered in the light of evolutionary thinking for barely more than two decades. A priori principles have led to the formulation of new concepts that are intensively studied in the rapidly increasing field of evolutionary parasitology. In an insect-trypanosome model system, our lab has studied some of those questions, including issues relating to the costs of host defence or parasite strategies of diversification. New issues have recently arisen such as, for example, the presence of additional players in the host-parasite interaction.