Seasonal changes in host phenotype manipulation by an acanthocephalan: time to be transmitted?

Intraspecific conflict over host manipulation between different larval stages of an acanthocephalan parasite.

Competitive interactions between coinfecting parasites are expected to be strong when they affect transmission success. When transmission is enhanced by altering host behaviour, intraspecific conflict can lead to 'coinfection exclusion' by the first-in parasite or to a 'sabotage' of behavioural manipulation by the youngest noninfective parasite. We tested these hypotheses in the acanthocephalan...

Carotenoid-based colour of acanthocephalan cystacanths plays no role in host manipulation.

Manipulation by parasites is a catchy concept that has been applied to a large range of phenotypic alterations brought about by parasites in their hosts. It has, for instance, been suggested that the carotenoid-based colour of acanthocephalan cystacanths is adaptive through increasing the conspicuousness of infected intermediate hosts and, hence, their vulnerability to appropriate final hosts s...

Co-variation between the intensity of behavioural manipulation and parasite development time in an acanthocephalan-amphipod system.

Pomphorhynchus laevis, a fish acanthocephalan parasite, manipulates the behaviour of its gammarid intermediate host to increase its trophic transmission to the definitive host. However, the intensity of behavioural manipulation is variable between individual gammarids and between parasite populations. To elucidate causes of this variability, we compared the level of phototaxis alteration induce...

Immune depression induced by acanthocephalan parasites in their intermediate crustacean host: consequences for the risk of super-infection and links with host behavioural manipulation.

Parasite survival in hosts mainly depends on the capacity to circumvent the host immune response. Acanthocephalan infections in gammarids are linked with decreased activity of the prophenoloxidase (ProPO) system, suggesting an active immunosuppression process. Nevertheless, experimental evidence for this hypothesis is lacking: whether these parasites affect several immune pathways is unknown an...

Host Manipulation by Toxoplasma gondii