Assignment task: In the Sompayrac readings, pathogens explain their own life cycle in a series of interviews. In a similar fashion, write up a response to the questions below from the point of view of one of the following pathogens:
Dengue virus
It is *key* that your answers reflect an understanding of how these different aspects of the pathogen's life history interrelate with one another to form a cohesive set of adaptations. Be sure that your responses to the "why" part of the questions illustrate this, or else you will not earn full credit for each question. You may find it helpful to answer the first part of every question first, and then once you understand all of the aspects of your pathogen's lifestyle, piece together how these facets form a cohesive set of adaptations.
Your answers will, of course, be much shorter and less detailed than Sompayrac's.
Logistics:
Your responses must be typed, with 12 pt. font, double-spaced, 1-inch margins required. Your response cannot be longer than 3 pages (plus references). Your answer to each question must be 1 or 2 paragraphs.
You can write it as one continuous essay or four separate elements as you wish.
Questions:
Q1. How do you get from one host to the next and enter their cells? And why do you choose this route? Answers must explain how it gets from one host to the next, where an infection starts in the host, and why this fits in with the pathogen's lifestyle.
Q2. How do you reproduce once you enter your target cells or tissues - and why do you choose this strategy? Answers must explain how the pathogen replicates once inside the host (Does it use the host's machinery? Does it feed on energy from the host? Etc.) How does this form of replication fit in with the pathogen's lifestyle?
Q3. How do you evade your host defenses - and why do you employ these evasion tactics? Answers must explain how the pathogen interacts (or manages to avoid interacting) with the immune system and is able to overcome it. How does this evasion fit in with the pathogen's lifestyle?
Q4. Where do you imagine yourself to be 100 years from now? That is, what is one way (or more) that you imagine your human hosts or other aspect of your environment may change in the future, and how might you adapt to it? For this question, remember that the human population is growing rapidly and population densities are increasing. The human species and our environment are also undergoing great changes (e.g. climate change, extinction of animal species, medical breakthroughs, economic development). How might any of these or similar conditions impact the pathogen you chose, and cause it to adapt its lifestyle via natural selection?