Recent studies of the forces behind the diversification of parasite assemblages have shed light on many aspects of parasite biodiversity. By using only parasite species richness as their measure of diversity, however, previous investigations have ignored the relatedness among parasite species and the taxonomic structure of the assemblages, which contain much information about their evolutionary...

Parasite diversity has important implications in several research fields including ecology, evolutionary biology and epidemiology. Wide-ranging analysis has been restricted because of the difficult, highly specialised and time-consuming processes involved in parasite identification. In this study, we assessed parasite diversity in wild rats using 18S rDNA-based metagenomics. 18S rDNA PCR produc...

The risk of parasitism is considered to be a general cost of sociality and individuals living in larger groups are typically considered to be more likely to be infected with parasites. However, contradictory results have been reported for the relationship between group size and infection by directly transmitted parasites. We used independent contrasts to examine the relationship between an inde...

Understanding drivers of genetic diversity at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is vitally important for predicting how vertebrate immune defence might respond to future selection pressures and for preserving immunogenetic diversity in declining populations. Parasite-mediated selection is believed to be the major selective force generating MHC polymorphism, and while MHC-based mating p...

Within the vertebrate host, infections of a malaria parasite (Plasmodium) could include a single genotype of cells (single-clone infections) or two to several genotypes (multiclone infections). Clonal diversity of infection plays an important role in the biology of the parasite, including its life history, virulence, and transmission. We determined the clonal diversity of Plasmodium mexicanum, ...

Although parasites are widely touted as representing a large fraction of the Earth's total biodiversity, several questions remain about the magnitude of parasite diversity, our ability to discover it all and how it varies among host taxa or areas of the world. This review addresses four topical issues about parasite diversity. First, we cannot currently estimate how many parasite species there ...

The within-host and between-host dynamics of malaria are linked in myriad ways, but most obviously by gametocytes, the parasite blood forms transmissible from human to mosquito. Gametocyte dynamics depend on those of non-transmissible blood forms, which stimulate immune responses, impeding transmission as well as within-host parasite densities. These dynamics can, in turn, influence antigenic d...

Aim Geographical variation in parasite diversity is examined among populations of fish in their original heartland and in areas where they have been introduced. The diversity in heartland and introduced populations is contrasted, and also compared with the expectations of a null model. Location Data on the parasite communities of two salmonid fish species were obtained: the rainbow trout Oncorh...

Parasite diversity is a constant challenge to host immune systems and has important clinical implications, but factors underpinning its emergence and maintenance are still poorly understood. Hosts typically harbour multiple parasite genotypes that share both host resources and immune responses. Parasite diversity is thus shaped not only by resource competition between co-infecting parasites but...