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From Parasitized to Healthy-Looking Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): Morphological Reconstruction Using Algorithmic

Sándor Csősz1,2, Ferenc Báthori1, Mathieu Molet3

  • 1Evolutionary Ecology Research Group, Institute of Ecology and Botany, Centre for Ecological Research, 2163 Vácrátót, Hungary.

Life (Basel, Switzerland)
|May 28, 2022
PubMed
Summary

Parasites induce predictable, species-specific morphological changes in ants. This study introduces a novel algorithmic approach to reconstruct healthy ant morphology, integrating these parasitogenic phenotypes into morphometric analyses for better biodiversity and evolutionary research.

Keywords:
Temnothoraxcysticercoidmachine learningmorphometryparasitogenic phenotypes

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Area of Science:

  • * Evolutionary Biology
  • * Ecology
  • * Taxonomy

Background:

  • * Parasites induce distinct, predictable alternative phenotypes in host individuals, impacting biodiversity, taxonomy, evolution, and ecology research.
  • * Integrating these parasitogenic phenotypes into morphometric analyses of wild-type individuals presents significant challenges.
  • * Existing methods struggle to account for host morphology alterations due to parasitic infections.

Purpose of the Study:

  • * To present an algorithmic approach for reconstructing the healthy morphology of parasitized ants.
  • * To enable the integration of alternative parasitogenic phenotypes into morphometric analyses.
  • * To address challenges in biodiversity, taxonomy, evolution, and ecology research caused by parasite-induced host changes.

Main Methods:

  • * Tested an algorithmic strategy on Cestoda-infected and healthy individuals of three Temnothorax ant species.
  • * Assessed the species-specific stability and convergence of parasite-induced morphological changes.
  • * Employed an artificial neural network-based multiclass classifier to predict species and infection status from morphology.

Main Results:

  • * Parasite infection causes predictable, yet species-specific, morphological alterations in Temnothorax ants.
  • * Morphometric analyses can successfully integrate parasitogenic phenotypes at the species level, requiring a prior species hypothesis.
  • * The developed approach demonstrates the feasibility of incorporating alternative phenotypes.

Conclusions:

  • * The algorithmic concept is effective for integrating parasitogenic phenotypes into morphometric analyses.
  • * The approach can be extended to include other alternative phenotypes, such as subcastes, polyphenic morphs, and alternative sexes.
  • * This method offers a novel solution for resolving the integrability of diverse alternative phenotypes in morphometric studies.