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Parasite-induced aggression and impaired contest ability in a fish host
BACKGROUND: Success of trophically transmitted parasites depends to a great extent on their ability to manipulate their intermediate hosts in a way that makes them easier prey for target hosts. Parasite-induced behavioural changes are the most spectacular and diverse examples of manipulation. Most o...
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Formato: | Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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BioMed Central
2010
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2845576/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20226098 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1756-3305-3-17 |
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author | Mikheev, V N Pasternak, A F Taskinen, J Valtonen, E T |
author_facet | Mikheev, V N Pasternak, A F Taskinen, J Valtonen, E T |
author_sort | Mikheev, V N |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Success of trophically transmitted parasites depends to a great extent on their ability to manipulate their intermediate hosts in a way that makes them easier prey for target hosts. Parasite-induced behavioural changes are the most spectacular and diverse examples of manipulation. Most of the studies have been focused on individual behaviour of hosts including fish. We suggest that agonistic interactions and territoriality in fish hosts may affect their vulnerability to predators and thus the transmission efficiency of trophically transmitted parasites. The parasite Diplostomum spathaceum (Trematoda) and juvenile rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, were used to study whether infection can alter aggression rates and territorial behaviour of intermediate fish hosts. RESULTS: The changes in behaviour of rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, infected with an eye fluke Diplostomum spathaceum (Trematoda), was monitored over the course of an experimental infection for 1.5 months. At the beginning of their development, not yet infective D. spathaceum metacercariae decreased the aggressiveness of rainbow trout. By the time that metacercariae were fully infective to their definitive hosts, the aggressiveness increased and exceeded that of control fish. Despite the increased aggressiveness, the experimentally infected fish lost contests for a territory (dark parts of the bottom) against the control fish. CONCLUSIONS: The results obtained indicate that the parasitized fish pay the cost of aggressiveness without the benefit of acquiring a territory that would provide them with better protection against predators. This behaviour should increase transmission of the parasite as expected by the parasite manipulation hypothesis. |
format | Text |
id | pubmed-2845576 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2010 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-28455762010-03-26 Parasite-induced aggression and impaired contest ability in a fish host Mikheev, V N Pasternak, A F Taskinen, J Valtonen, E T Parasit Vectors Research BACKGROUND: Success of trophically transmitted parasites depends to a great extent on their ability to manipulate their intermediate hosts in a way that makes them easier prey for target hosts. Parasite-induced behavioural changes are the most spectacular and diverse examples of manipulation. Most of the studies have been focused on individual behaviour of hosts including fish. We suggest that agonistic interactions and territoriality in fish hosts may affect their vulnerability to predators and thus the transmission efficiency of trophically transmitted parasites. The parasite Diplostomum spathaceum (Trematoda) and juvenile rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, were used to study whether infection can alter aggression rates and territorial behaviour of intermediate fish hosts. RESULTS: The changes in behaviour of rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, infected with an eye fluke Diplostomum spathaceum (Trematoda), was monitored over the course of an experimental infection for 1.5 months. At the beginning of their development, not yet infective D. spathaceum metacercariae decreased the aggressiveness of rainbow trout. By the time that metacercariae were fully infective to their definitive hosts, the aggressiveness increased and exceeded that of control fish. Despite the increased aggressiveness, the experimentally infected fish lost contests for a territory (dark parts of the bottom) against the control fish. CONCLUSIONS: The results obtained indicate that the parasitized fish pay the cost of aggressiveness without the benefit of acquiring a territory that would provide them with better protection against predators. This behaviour should increase transmission of the parasite as expected by the parasite manipulation hypothesis. BioMed Central 2010-03-15 /pmc/articles/PMC2845576/ /pubmed/20226098 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1756-3305-3-17 Text en Copyright ©2010 Mikheev et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Mikheev, V N Pasternak, A F Taskinen, J Valtonen, E T Parasite-induced aggression and impaired contest ability in a fish host |
title | Parasite-induced aggression and impaired contest ability in a fish host |
title_full | Parasite-induced aggression and impaired contest ability in a fish host |
title_fullStr | Parasite-induced aggression and impaired contest ability in a fish host |
title_full_unstemmed | Parasite-induced aggression and impaired contest ability in a fish host |
title_short | Parasite-induced aggression and impaired contest ability in a fish host |
title_sort | parasite-induced aggression and impaired contest ability in a fish host |
topic | Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2845576/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20226098 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1756-3305-3-17 |
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