Behavior out of control: Experimental evolution of resistance to host manipulation

Ecology and Evolution
Nina Hafer-Hahmann

Abstract

Many parasites alter their host's phenotype in a manner that enhances their own fitness beyond the benefits they would gain from normal exploitation. Such host manipulation is rarely consistent with the host's best interests resulting in suboptimal and often fatal behavior from the host's perspective. In this case, hosts should evolve resistance to host manipulation. The cestode Schistocephalus solidus manipulates the behavior of its first intermediate copepod host to reduce its predation susceptibility and avoid fatal premature predation before the parasite is ready for transmission to its subsequent host. Thereafter, S. solidus increases host activity to facilitate transmission. If successful, this host manipulation is necessarily fatal for the host. I selected the copepod Macrocyclops albidus, a first intermediate host of S. solidus, for resistance or susceptibility to host manipulation to investigate their evolvability. Selection on the host indeed increased host manipulation in susceptible and reduced host manipulation in resistant selection lines. Interestingly, this seemed to be at least partly due to changes in the baseline levels of the modified trait (activity) rather than actual changes in resistance or susceptibilit...Continue Reading

Associated Datasets

References

Nov 27, 2002·Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution·Jess A T MorganEric S Loker
Jun 5, 2008·PloS One·Amir H GrosmanMaurice W Sabelis
May 21, 2009·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Katrin HammerschmidtGeoff A Parker
Oct 27, 2009·International Journal for Parasitology·Daniel P Benesh
Apr 17, 2010·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Nathalie FranceschiThierry Rigaud
Oct 26, 2011·Journal of Evolutionary Biology·Julien MartinezJ Varaldi
Aug 30, 2012·Nature Methods·Caroline A SchneiderKevin W Eliceiri
Feb 5, 2016·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Nina Hafer, Manfred Milinski
Aug 12, 2016·BioEssays : News and Reviews in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology·Nina Hafer
Apr 10, 2019·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Nina Hafer-Hahmann

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Citations

Jun 24, 2021·Trends in Parasitology·David BassRony Huys
Sep 19, 2021·Scientific Reports·Tatsumi KudoEisuke Hasegawa

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Software Mentioned

R Development Core Team
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