QUANTIFYING BILATERAL INFECTION PATTERNS IN THE TREMATODE ALLOGLOSSIDIUM RENALE.

Area of Science:

• Parasitology
• Ecology
• Evolutionary Biology

Background:

• Within-host parasite distribution impacts competition, mating, transmission, and host health.
• The hermaphroditic trematode Alloglossidium renale infects paired grass shrimp antennal glands.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the within-host distribution of Alloglossidium renale in grass shrimp antennal glands.
• To test for aggregation patterns that could indicate inbreeding avoidance strategies.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Monte Carlo simulations to analyze parasite distribution patterns.
• Compared observed distributions against random allocation models for paired organs.
• Accounted for low-intensity infections and zero-abundance data points.

Main Results:

• Three out of four datasets showed Alloglossidium renale distributions did not deviate from random.
• One dataset exhibited a more uniform distribution than expected by chance.
• No evidence of aggregation between glands or inbreeding avoidance was found.

Conclusions:

• Alloglossidium renale distribution in grass shrimp antennal glands does not support inbreeding avoidance.
• The high proportion of single-worm infections suggests a high likelihood of inbreeding in natural parasite populations.