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EVOLUTIONARY PATTERNS OF ALTERED BEHAVIOR AND SUSCEPTIBILITY IN PARASITIZED HOSTS
Janice Moore1, Nicholas J Gotelli2
1Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, 80523.
Summary
Host phylogeny weakly influences cockroach behavior changes in response to parasites. However, susceptibility to parasites shows significant concordance with host phylogeny at the species level.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary Biology
- Parasitology
- Behavioral Ecology
Background:
- Parasite-host interactions are typically viewed through the lens of adaptation, with altered host behavior and resistance often interpreted as adaptive traits.
- Evaluating the adaptive significance requires considering the historical evolutionary context and phylogenetic relationships between hosts and parasites.
- Phylogenetic analysis can reveal whether observed traits are predictable based on evolutionary history.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the influence of host phylogeny on altered host behavior and resistance to parasitism in a cockroach-acanthocephalan system.
- To determine if behavioral changes and susceptibility patterns in cockroaches are shaped by their evolutionary history.
- To assess the relative rates of evolutionary change in behavior versus speciation in host-parasite systems.
Main Methods:
- Construction of a cockroach subfamily consensus cladogram using morphological data.
- Experimental infection of seven cockroach species with *Moniliformis moniliformis* to measure behavioral changes (activity, substrate choice, light response).
- Parsimony analysis and consistency index (CI) calculations to assess concordance between behavioral data and phylogeny, and between susceptibility data and phylogeny.
Main Results:
- No significant concordance was found between altered host behavior and cockroach phylogeny across three evolutionary models, suggesting behavioral changes are frequent.
- Unaltered behavior appears to be the ancestral state for most behaviors examined.
- Susceptibility to *M. moniliformis* showed significant concordance with host phylogeny at the species level, but not at the subfamily level.
Conclusions:
- Changes in cockroach behavior in response to parasites occur more frequently than speciation events, indicating rapid adaptation.
- While susceptibility patterns align with phylogeny at the species level, behavioral adaptations appear less constrained by evolutionary history.
- The findings suggest that behavioral adaptations to parasites may evolve more rapidly than resistance, challenging traditional adaptationist interpretations without phylogenetic context.
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