Book review

Survey and future research in immunologyof infectious disease

A review by E. Lee

Immunology and Evolution of Infectious Disease. By

Steven A., Frank. Princeton University Press. 2002. Paper

$24.95/£17.95 ISBN 0-691-09595-7. Cloth $75.00/

£52.00 ISBN 0-691-09594-9. 352 pp.

As stated in the book’s introduction, it is necessary to

understand multiple disciplines in order to understand

immunology and evolution of infectious disease. The

author provides this background by guiding the reader

through basic details of molecular biology, the popula-

tion-wide evolutionary race between host and parasite,

and the steps in between. He also provides an in-depth

summary of a biological system involving multiple spatial

and temporal scales. This book is not the first of its kind:

it is however, still important for two reasons. (1) The

rapid rate of scientific development makes it easy for one

to specialize in a single field while losing connection with

others. With fewer than 300 pages, this book provides a

relatively compact, yet in-depth summary of a broad and

detailed array of results. (2) As an active researcher in the

field, the author can provide an insider’s view. Each

chapter concludes with a section stating what he believes

are the important questions and future directions. The

final chapter is devoted to the same topic.

The book is divided into five parts. (1) Minimal

background details necessary to understand the rest of

book are given. (2) Molecular processes by which the

host recognizes the parasite are described. A brief

overview of common mechanisms by which the parasite

escapes detection is also given. (3) Infection within a

single host is described. Initial focus is on immunodom-

inance, where the host recognizes the parasite with a

small number of many possible epitopes. An overview is

given of the dynamics of parasite recognition to illustrate

selection pressures on the host as well as potential

problems with immundominance for the host. The focus

then shifts to the parasite, where it is explained how the

parasite escapes detection within a host. The author looks

at real examples of the human immunodeficiency and

hepatitis C viruses to see how parasites interfere with

host immunity. (4) The focus shifts from the individual

host to a population of hosts. The author points out that

some qualities can only be seen at the population scale.

Examples are genetic variation and the distribution of

immune memory profiles in the host population. Effects

of host populations on the parasites are described.

(5) Methods of understanding how evolution leads to

antigenic variation in the parasite are described. One

method is to compare immunological and phylogenetic

information to determine whether the immune system is

imposing stabilizing or divergent selection. Another is

experimental evolution, where host properties are mani-

pulated and the resulting evolution of parasite antigens

are observed in the laboratory. Particular examples

include foot-and-mouth disease, influenza and leukae-

mia viruses. A third method was to look at synonymous

and non-synonymous mutations in natural populations

to determine the degree of selection on viral amino acids.

The author effectively connects immunology and evo-

lution whenever possible. Development of ideas is smooth

and the book is for the most part, self-contained. It also

provides an excellent survey, and with over 500 refer-

ences, it makes a good reference guide to current devel-

opments. This makes it suitable for researchers and

graduate students in related fields, as well as an excellent

starting point for interdisciplinary research or topics for a

graduate seminar. This book should also be of considerable

interest to those studying the link between genotypes and

phenotypes, or genotype–phenotype maps. Viruses are

ideal for at least two reasons: (1) they are simple enough so

that the interaction between viral parts and how they

contribute to fitness can be effectively studied as the

author explains with experimental evolution and (2) they

are structurally rich enough to produce non-trivial beha-

viour. Recent results as well as the author’s suggestions for

future research may provide a glimpse into important

future developments for genotype–phenotype map stud-

ies. Undergraduates and newcomers may however,

experience difficulty. By the nature of the discipline, the

book is very dense and difficult to read straight through.

This is helped by the summaries at the beginning of each

chapter, each of the five parts, and in the introduction.

Another difficulty for the non-expert is that there are

relatively few pictures, making it difficult to visualize

many of the systems. Reference books may be helpful,

especially when molecular descriptions are involved.

Eric Lee

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology,

Yale University, PO Box 208106,

New Haven,

CT 06520-8106,

USA

eric.lee@yale.edu

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doi:10.1046/j.1420-9101.2003.00580.x