Pleiotropy promotes the evolution of inducible immune responses in a model of host-pathogen coevolution
Fig 2
The evolution of immunological dynamics depends on lifetime infection risk and pleiotropic constraint within the signaling network.
A) Normalized probability density function of the proportion of host immune responses that are induced by parasites. The x-axis shows the percent of the response that is induced by parasites, with the left-hand side being 0% of response induced, to 100% induced responses on the right. The y-axis corresponds to the relative likelihood of finding an immune response in the specified population that is X% induced. Non-pleiotropic networks are represented in green and pleiotropic networks in blue. All plots on the same row have the same chance of infection (10%, 50%, or 90% descending), and plots in the same column compare the non-pleiotropic network against the indicated pleiotropic constraint. Presented in each plot is the Pearson correlation coefficient calculated between the non-pleiotropic and pleiotropic networks. B) Heatmap of the magnitude of maximum immune response attained during infection vs proportion of immune response that is induced by parasites. The y-axis shows the peak of immune effector abundance achieved during infection range [0,1]. The x-axis shows the proportion of the peak response that was generated following infection range [0,1] Darker colors indicate more individuals expressing the magnitude and response combination.