Laboratoire «Evolution & Diversité Biologique», Toulouse, FRANCE
A classical perspective on disease transmission has been that areas rich in species also display a high biodiversity of pathogens, and thus a high risk of transmission. More recently, an alternative perspective suggests that high biodiversity decreases the risk of disease transmission, by buffering the spreading of parasites through the presence of numerous non-competent hosts. This « dilution-effect » also suggests that anthropogenic disturbed environments with low biodiversity might present higher risk of disease transmission to humans.
Vector-borne diseases are particularly well suited to study the relationship between biodiversity and disease transmission risk. Testing the dilution-effect hypothesis on such a system would require a precise understanding of the biodiversity of pathogens, hosts and vectors over various ecosystems and time scales. This description has until now be hampered by the necessity to rely on time consuming morphological identification of vectors and detection of the presence of pathogens in vectors and potential hosts.
Our goal is to develop, validate and implement molecular tools for new generation biodiversity monitoring through metabarcoding. This will allow us to study the dilution effect hypothesis in the multipartite system involved in the transmission of Leishmaniasis. This approach has never been performed on such a system before and offer promising opportunities to rapidly and efficiently characterize whole-community biodiversity patterns over large spatial and ecological scales.
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