Parasites and host behaviour: Co-evolution from genotype to phenotype
Informations
- Funding country
Norway- Acronym
- -
- URL
- -
- Start date
- 1/1/2016
- End date
- 12/31/2022
- Budget
- 1,052,265 EUR
Fundings
| Name | Role | Start | End | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FRIMEDBIO - Independent projects - Medicine, Health Sciences and Biology | Grant | - | - | 1,052,265 EUR |
Abstract
Many parasites are able to modify the behavior of the organisms they live on (or in), their so-called hosts, in ways that are seemingly good for the parasite but bad for the host. Infected animals can do such weird things as drowning themselves or allowing themselves to be eaten. This makes no sense to anyone but the parasites which jump between different hosts in their life cycle, or get spread to new environments. One organism called Euhaplorchis californiensis occur as cysts on the brain of California killifish and causes the fish to seek to the water surface and lose their normal fear of predatory birds, whose intestines provide the next environment for the parasites. This project tests the novel hypothesis that in fact both birds and parasites benefit from this interaction. Results from the project suggest that the intestinal worms would cause little or no harm to the birds, who instead benefit from a supply of easy-to-catch meals. One might even say that the birds use the parasites as biological warfare against their prey, instead of trying to get rid of them. Exactly how the parasite manipulates the behavior of its fish host is also a topic. It is known that parasites in some cases acquire genes from their hosts, and these genes may help parasites to avoid recognition by the host immune system. We have shown that parasites in their behaviour-manipulating stafe overexpress an enzyme which metabolises the essential amino acid tryptophan. Draining the local environment of tryptophan is a mechanism to inhibit immune function utilised by for instance cancer cells and the mammalian placenta, but multicellular organisms has not previously been shown to do this.Finally, we are interested in seeing if some hosts are easier to manipulate than others. To explore the latter question we have established genetic lines of zebrafish. The results from this project may thus be relevant to the emerging understanding of how interactions between the immune and nervous system in shaping individual health and stress coping profiles.