Maintenance of diversity in a hierarchical host-parasite model with balancing selection and reinfection

Abstract

Inspired by DNA data of the human cytomegalovirus we propose a model of a two-type parasite population distributed over its hosts. The parasite is capable to persist in its host till the host dies, and to reinfect other hosts. To maintain type diversity within a host, balancing selection is assumed. For a suitable parameter regime we show that in the limit of large host and parasite populations the host state frequencies follow a dynamical system with a globally stable equilibrium, guaranteeing that both types are maintained in the parasite population for a long time on the host time scale.