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Genetic Manipulation in Δku80 Strains for Functional Genomic Analysis of Toxoplasma gondii

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Published on: July 12, 2013

When should a trophically transmitted parasite manipulate its host?

Geoffrey A Parker¹, Michael A Ball, James C Chubb

¹Division of Population and Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZB, United Kingdom. gap@liv.ac.uk

Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution

|January 22, 2009

Summary

Parasitic helminths evolve to manipulate host predation. Predation suppression lowers host mortality for parasite survival, while enhancement increases it after parasite maturation, depending on mortality factors.

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Area of Science:

Evolutionary biology
Parasitology
Behavioral ecology

Background:

Trophically transmitted helminths manipulate host behavior to facilitate transmission.
Two key strategies are predation suppression and enhancement.
Understanding the evolutionary drivers of these strategies is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the evolutionary pathways of adaptive host manipulation by helminths.
To differentiate the conditions favoring predation suppression versus enhancement.
To analyze the role of host and parasite mortality rates in shaping these strategies.

Main Methods:

Theoretical modeling of host-parasite interactions.
Analysis of evolutionary game theory principles.
Examination of parasite life-cycle constraints and host mortality factors.

Main Results:

Predation suppression evolves to reduce host mortality, benefiting parasite survival before transmission.
Predation enhancement can evolve to increase host mortality after parasite maturation, particularly if parasite death in the intermediate host is high.
The relative importance of 'right' (target host) versus 'wrong' (non-target host) predation is critical for enhancement evolution.

Conclusions:

Host manipulation strategies are shaped by the interplay between parasite life-history traits and host mortality patterns.
Suppression is favored when reducing overall host mortality is beneficial, while enhancement depends on increasing predation by the correct next host.
The evolution of manipulation strategies is contingent on the specific ecological and life-historical context of the host-parasite system.