title: The genetics of infectious disease susceptibility: has the evidence for epistasis been overestimated?
abstract: Interactions amongst genes, known as epistasis, are assumed to make a substantial contribution to the genetic variation in infectious disease susceptibility, but this claim is controversial. Here, we focus on the debate surrounding the evolutionary importance of interactions between resistance loci and argue that its role in explaining overall variance in disease outcomes may have been overestimated.
authors.affiliation: University of Basel, Zoological Institute, Vesalgasse 1, Basel, CH-4051, Switzerland. matt.hall@unibas.ch
authors.forename: Matthew D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ebert
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000235:genetics*; D004843:Epistasis, Genetic; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008957:Models, Genetic; D019655:Quantitative Trait, Heritable