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A nutrient mediates intraspecific competition between rodent malaria parasites in vivo

Hosts are often infected with multiple strains of a single parasite species. Within-host competition between parasite strains can be intense and has implications for the evolution of traits that impact patient health, such as drug resistance and virulence. Yet the mechanistic basis of within-host co...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Wale, Nina, Sim, Derek G., Read, Andrew F.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5543226/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28747479
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.1067
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author Wale, Nina
Sim, Derek G.
Read, Andrew F.
author_facet Wale, Nina
Sim, Derek G.
Read, Andrew F.
author_sort Wale, Nina
collection PubMed
description Hosts are often infected with multiple strains of a single parasite species. Within-host competition between parasite strains can be intense and has implications for the evolution of traits that impact patient health, such as drug resistance and virulence. Yet the mechanistic basis of within-host competition is poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that a parasite nutrient, para-aminobenzoic acid (pABA), mediates competition between a drug resistant and drug susceptible strain of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium chabaudi. We further show that increasing pABA supply to hosts infected with the resistant strain worsens disease and changes the relationship between parasite burden and pathology. Our experiments demonstrate that, even when there is profound top-down regulation (immunity), bottom-up regulation of pathogen populations can occur and that its importance may vary during an infection. The identification of resources that can be experimentally controlled opens up the opportunity to manipulate competitive interactions between parasites and hence their evolution.
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spelling pubmed-55432262017-08-08 A nutrient mediates intraspecific competition between rodent malaria parasites in vivo Wale, Nina Sim, Derek G. Read, Andrew F. Proc Biol Sci Ecology Hosts are often infected with multiple strains of a single parasite species. Within-host competition between parasite strains can be intense and has implications for the evolution of traits that impact patient health, such as drug resistance and virulence. Yet the mechanistic basis of within-host competition is poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that a parasite nutrient, para-aminobenzoic acid (pABA), mediates competition between a drug resistant and drug susceptible strain of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium chabaudi. We further show that increasing pABA supply to hosts infected with the resistant strain worsens disease and changes the relationship between parasite burden and pathology. Our experiments demonstrate that, even when there is profound top-down regulation (immunity), bottom-up regulation of pathogen populations can occur and that its importance may vary during an infection. The identification of resources that can be experimentally controlled opens up the opportunity to manipulate competitive interactions between parasites and hence their evolution. The Royal Society 2017-07-26 2017-07-26 /pmc/articles/PMC5543226/ /pubmed/28747479 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.1067 Text en © 2017 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Ecology
Wale, Nina
Sim, Derek G.
Read, Andrew F.
A nutrient mediates intraspecific competition between rodent malaria parasites in vivo
title A nutrient mediates intraspecific competition between rodent malaria parasites in vivo
title_full A nutrient mediates intraspecific competition between rodent malaria parasites in vivo
title_fullStr A nutrient mediates intraspecific competition between rodent malaria parasites in vivo
title_full_unstemmed A nutrient mediates intraspecific competition between rodent malaria parasites in vivo
title_short A nutrient mediates intraspecific competition between rodent malaria parasites in vivo
title_sort nutrient mediates intraspecific competition between rodent malaria parasites in vivo
topic Ecology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5543226/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28747479
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.1067
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