Vertical transmission
Encyclopedia
Vertical transmission, also known as mother-to-child transmission, is the transmission
of an infection
or other disease from mother to child immediately before and after birth during the perinatal period. A pathogen's transmissibility refers to its capacity for vertical transmission. The concept of vertical transmission is also used in population genetics
to describe inheritance of an allele
or condition from either the father or mother.
Vertical transmission tends to evolve benign symbiosis
. It is therefore a critical concept for evolutionary medicine
.
Because a pathogen's ability to pass from parent to child depends significantly on the hosts' ability to reproduce, pathogens' transmissibility tends to be inversely related with their virulence. In other words, as pathogens become more harmful to and thus decrease the reproduction rate of their host organism, they are less likely to be able pass on to the hosts' offspring since there will be fewer offspring.
In Dual Inheritance Theory
, vertical transmission refers to the passing of cultural traits from parents to children.
Transmission (medicine)
In medicine and biology, transmission is the passing of a communicable disease from an infected host individual or group to a conspecific individual or group, regardless of whether the other individual was previously infected...
of an infection
Infection
An infection is the colonization of a host organism by parasite species. Infecting parasites seek to use the host's resources to reproduce, often resulting in disease...
or other disease from mother to child immediately before and after birth during the perinatal period. A pathogen's transmissibility refers to its capacity for vertical transmission. The concept of vertical transmission is also used in population genetics
Population genetics
Population genetics is the study of allele frequency distribution and change under the influence of the four main evolutionary processes: natural selection, genetic drift, mutation and gene flow. It also takes into account the factors of recombination, population subdivision and population...
to describe inheritance of an allele
Allele
An allele is one of two or more forms of a gene or a genetic locus . "Allel" is an abbreviation of allelomorph. Sometimes, different alleles can result in different observable phenotypic traits, such as different pigmentation...
or condition from either the father or mother.
Vertical transmission tends to evolve benign symbiosis
Symbiosis
Symbiosis is close and often long-term interaction between different biological species. In 1877 Bennett used the word symbiosis to describe the mutualistic relationship in lichens...
. It is therefore a critical concept for evolutionary medicine
Evolutionary medicine
Evolutionary medicine or Darwinian medicine is the application of modern evolutionary theory to understanding health and disease. It provides a complementary scientific approach to the present mechanistic explanations that dominate medical science, and particularly modern medical education...
.
Because a pathogen's ability to pass from parent to child depends significantly on the hosts' ability to reproduce, pathogens' transmissibility tends to be inversely related with their virulence. In other words, as pathogens become more harmful to and thus decrease the reproduction rate of their host organism, they are less likely to be able pass on to the hosts' offspring since there will be fewer offspring.
In Dual Inheritance Theory
Dual inheritance theory
Dual inheritance theory , also known as gene-culture coevolution, was developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s to explain how human behavior is a product of two different and interacting evolutionary processes: genetic evolution and cultural evolution...
, vertical transmission refers to the passing of cultural traits from parents to children.