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Updated: May 20, 2026

Using Caenorhabditis elegans for Studying Trans- and Multi-Generational Effects of Toxicants
Published on: July 29, 2019
Effect of multiple parasitic infections on the tolerance to pollutant contamination
Eric Gismondi1, Thierry Rigaud, Jean-Nicolas Beisel
1Laboratoire des Interactions Ecotoxicologie Biodiversité Ecosystèmes (LIEBE), Université de Lorraine (UdL), Campus Bridoux, Bât. IBiSE, Metz, France. eric.gismondi@hotmail.fr
Abstract:
The horizontally-transmitted acanthocephalan parasite Polymorphus minutus and the vertically-transmitted microsporidian parasite Dictyocoela roeselum have both been shown to influence on the antitoxic responses of mono-infected Gammarus roeseli exposed to cadmium. The present study investigates the effect of this co-infection on the antitoxic defence responses of naturally infected females exposed to cadmium stress. Our results revealed that, depending on the cadmium dose, bi-infection induced only slight, significant increased cell damage in G. roeseli as compared to non-infection. In addition, the antitoxic defence pattern of cadmium-exposed bi-infected hosts was similar to the pattern of cadmium-exposed D. roeselum-infected hosts. Reduced glutathione concentrations, carotenoid levels and γ-glutamylcystein ligase activity decreased, while metallothionein concentrations increased. This similar pattern indicates that host physiology can be controlled to some extent by microsporidia under stress conditions. It supports the hypothesis of a disruption of acanthocephalan effects in the presence of microsporidia. However, the global negative effects of bi-infection on host condition should be tested on more biological models, since competition between parasites depends on life history trade-off.
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