From risk factor to survival advantage: How tuberculosis has shaped meerkat evolution

From risk factor to survival advantage: How tuberculosis has shaped meerkat evolution

Meerkats genetically adapt to a species-specific form of tuberculosis according to a long-term study by an international research team led by Ulm University. The scientists also found that climate change in the Kalahari Desert exerts additional selection pressure on the animals. The combination of infection pressure and climate change is putting meerkats under increasing evolutionary stress. The study's results have been published in Nature Ecol…