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Protozoan Parasite Toxoplasma gondii Manipulates Mate Choice in Rats by Enhancing Attractiveness of Males
Females in various species typically avoid males infected with parasites, while parasite-free males advertise their status through conspicuous phenotypic traits. This process selects for heritable resistance and reduces direct exposure of the female to parasites. Coevolving parasites are likely to a...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2011
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3206931/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22073295 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0027229 |
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author | Dass, Shantala Arundathi Hari Vasudevan, Anand Dutta, Deborah Soh, Linda Jing Ting Sapolsky, Robert Morris Vyas, Ajai |
author_facet | Dass, Shantala Arundathi Hari Vasudevan, Anand Dutta, Deborah Soh, Linda Jing Ting Sapolsky, Robert Morris Vyas, Ajai |
author_sort | Dass, Shantala Arundathi Hari |
collection | PubMed |
description | Females in various species typically avoid males infected with parasites, while parasite-free males advertise their status through conspicuous phenotypic traits. This process selects for heritable resistance and reduces direct exposure of the female to parasites. Coevolving parasites are likely to attempt to circumvent this obstacle. In this paper, we demonstrate a case of parasitic manipulation of host mate choice. We report that Toxoplasma gondii, a sexually transmitted infection of brown rats, enhances sexual attractiveness of infected males. Thus under some evolutionary niches, parasites can indeed manipulate host sexual signaling to their own advantage. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3206931 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2011 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-32069312011-11-09 Protozoan Parasite Toxoplasma gondii Manipulates Mate Choice in Rats by Enhancing Attractiveness of Males Dass, Shantala Arundathi Hari Vasudevan, Anand Dutta, Deborah Soh, Linda Jing Ting Sapolsky, Robert Morris Vyas, Ajai PLoS One Research Article Females in various species typically avoid males infected with parasites, while parasite-free males advertise their status through conspicuous phenotypic traits. This process selects for heritable resistance and reduces direct exposure of the female to parasites. Coevolving parasites are likely to attempt to circumvent this obstacle. In this paper, we demonstrate a case of parasitic manipulation of host mate choice. We report that Toxoplasma gondii, a sexually transmitted infection of brown rats, enhances sexual attractiveness of infected males. Thus under some evolutionary niches, parasites can indeed manipulate host sexual signaling to their own advantage. Public Library of Science 2011-11-02 /pmc/articles/PMC3206931/ /pubmed/22073295 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0027229 Text en Dass et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Dass, Shantala Arundathi Hari Vasudevan, Anand Dutta, Deborah Soh, Linda Jing Ting Sapolsky, Robert Morris Vyas, Ajai Protozoan Parasite Toxoplasma gondii Manipulates Mate Choice in Rats by Enhancing Attractiveness of Males |
title | Protozoan Parasite Toxoplasma gondii Manipulates Mate Choice in Rats by Enhancing Attractiveness of Males |
title_full | Protozoan Parasite Toxoplasma gondii Manipulates Mate Choice in Rats by Enhancing Attractiveness of Males |
title_fullStr | Protozoan Parasite Toxoplasma gondii Manipulates Mate Choice in Rats by Enhancing Attractiveness of Males |
title_full_unstemmed | Protozoan Parasite Toxoplasma gondii Manipulates Mate Choice in Rats by Enhancing Attractiveness of Males |
title_short | Protozoan Parasite Toxoplasma gondii Manipulates Mate Choice in Rats by Enhancing Attractiveness of Males |
title_sort | protozoan parasite toxoplasma gondii manipulates mate choice in rats by enhancing attractiveness of males |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3206931/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22073295 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0027229 |
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