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Asakura H, Futamura R, Moriyama S, Iida S, Araki K, Ayumi M, Kumikawa S, Matsuoka Y, Takahashi T, Uchida J, Kishida O, Sato T. Two distinct host-parasite associations mediate seasonal ecosystem linkages. Biol Lett 2024; 20:20240065. [PMID: 39016002 PMCID: PMC11252854 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2024.0065] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2024] [Revised: 04/16/2024] [Accepted: 06/05/2024] [Indexed: 07/18/2024] Open
Abstract
Nematomorph parasites manipulate terrestrial arthropods to enter streams where the parasites reproduce. These manipulated arthropods become a substantial prey subsidy for stream salmonids, causing cross-ecosystem energy flow. Diverse nematomorph-arthropod associations underlie the energy flow, but it remains unknown whether they can mediate the magnitude and temporal attributes of the energy flow. Here, we investigated whether distinct phylogenetic groups of nematomorphs manipulate different arthropod hosts and mediate seasonal prey subsidy for stream salmonids. The results of our molecular-based diagnoses show that Gordionus and Gordius nematomorphs infected ground beetle and orthopteran hosts, respectively. The presumable ground beetle hosts subsidized salmonid individuals in spring, whereas the presumable orthopteran hosts did so in autumn. Maintaining the two distinct nematomorph-arthropod associations thus resulted in the parasite-mediated prey subsidy in both spring and autumn in the study streams. Manipulative parasites are common, and often associated with a range of host lineages, suggesting that similar effects of phylogenetic variation in host-parasite associations on energy flow might be widespread in nature.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hinako Asakura
- Department of Zoology, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
| | - Ryo Futamura
- Graduate School of Environmental Sciences, Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, Japan
- Department of Fish Biology, Fisheries and Aquaculture, Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin, Germany
| | - Senri Moriyama
- Graduate School of Environmental Sciences, Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, Japan
| | - Satoko Iida
- Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
| | - Koume Araki
- Tomakomai Experimental Forest, Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, Japan
| | - Masato Ayumi
- Tomakomai Experimental Forest, Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, Japan
| | - Shoji Kumikawa
- Tomakomai Experimental Forest, Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, Japan
| | - Yuichi Matsuoka
- Tomakomai Experimental Forest, Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, Japan
| | - Taro Takahashi
- Tomakomai Experimental Forest, Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, Japan
| | - Jiro Uchida
- Tomakomai Experimental Forest, Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, Japan
| | - Osamu Kishida
- Wakayama Experimental Forest, Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, Japan
| | - Takuya Sato
- Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
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Mishina T, Chiu MC, Hashiguchi Y, Oishi S, Sasaki A, Okada R, Uchiyama H, Sasaki T, Sakura M, Takeshima H, Sato T. Massive horizontal gene transfer and the evolution of nematomorph-driven behavioral manipulation of mantids. Curr Biol 2023; 33:4988-4994.e5. [PMID: 37863060 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.09.052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2023] [Revised: 08/21/2023] [Accepted: 09/21/2023] [Indexed: 10/22/2023]
Abstract
To complete their life cycle, a wide range of parasites must manipulate the behavior of their hosts.1 This manipulation is a well-known example of the "extended phenotype,2" where genes in one organism have phenotypic effects on another organism. Recent studies have explored the parasite genes responsible for such manipulation of host behavior, including the potential molecular mechanisms.3,4 However, little is known about how parasites have acquired the genes involved in manipulating phylogenetically distinct hosts.4 In a fascinating example of the extended phenotype, nematomorph parasites have evolved the ability to induce their terrestrial insect hosts to enter bodies of water, where the parasite then reproduces. Here, we comprehensively analyzed nematomorphs and their mantid hosts, focusing on the transcriptomic changes associated with host manipulations and sequence similarity between host and parasite genes to test molecular mimicry. The nematomorph's transcriptome changed during host manipulation, whereas no distinct changes were found in mantids. We then discovered numerous possible host-derived genes in nematomorphs, and these genes were frequently up-regulated during host manipulation. Our findings suggest a possible general role of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in the molecular mechanisms of host manipulation, as well as in the genome evolution of manipulative parasites. The evidence of HGT between multicellular eukaryotes remains scarce but is increasing and, therefore, elucidating its mechanisms will advance our understanding of the enduring influence of HGT on the evolution of the web of life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tappei Mishina
- Laboratory for Chromosome Segregation, RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR), Kobe 6500047, Japan.
| | - Ming-Chung Chiu
- Department of Biology, Graduate School of Sciences, Kobe University, Kobe 6578501, Japan; Department of Entomology, National Taiwan University, Taipei 50007, Taiwan
| | - Yasuyuki Hashiguchi
- Department of Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Osaka Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Takatsuki 5690801, Japan.
| | - Sayumi Oishi
- Department of Biology, Graduate School of Sciences, Kobe University, Kobe 6578501, Japan
| | - Atsunari Sasaki
- Department of Biology, Graduate School of Sciences, Kobe University, Kobe 6578501, Japan
| | - Ryuichi Okada
- Department of Biology, Graduate School of Sciences, Kobe University, Kobe 6578501, Japan
| | - Hironobu Uchiyama
- NODAI Genome Research Center, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Tokyo 1568502, Japan
| | - Takeshi Sasaki
- Graduate School of Bioresource Development, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Atsugi 2430034, Japan
| | - Midori Sakura
- Department of Biology, Graduate School of Sciences, Kobe University, Kobe 6578501, Japan
| | - Hirohiko Takeshima
- Research Center of Marine Bioresources, Department of Marine Bioscience, Fukui Prefectural University, 49-8-2, Katsumi, Obama, Fukui Prefecture 9170116, Japan
| | - Takuya Sato
- Department of Biology, Graduate School of Sciences, Kobe University, Kobe 6578501, Japan; Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, Otsu 5202113, Japan.
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3
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Doherty JF, Poulin R. Come with me if you want to live: sympatric parasites follow different transmission routes through aquatic host communities. Int J Parasitol 2021; 52:293-303. [PMID: 34973954 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2021.11.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2021] [Revised: 11/24/2021] [Accepted: 11/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Community composition, including the relative density of each host species, plays a vital role in the transmission of parasites or disease in freshwater ecosystems. Whereas some host species can effectively transmit parasites, others can act as dead ends (non-viable transmission routes), accumulating large numbers of parasites throughout their life, thus becoming important sinks for parasite populations. Although population sinks have been identified in certain host-parasite systems, robust field estimates of the proportions of parasites that are lost to these hosts are lacking. Here, we quantified the distribution of encysted larval hairworms (phylum Nematomorpha), common parasites in lotic ecosystems, in two subalpine stream communities of New Zealand. With parasite and host population densities calculated per m2, we identified which host species most likely contributed to the transmission of three sympatric hairworm morphotypes identified in both streams, and which species acted as population sinks. We also tested for seasonal patterns and peaks in the abundance of each morphotype in the two communities over the sampling season. Finally, we tested whether hosts emerging from the streams had comparable abundances of hairworm morphotypes throughout the sampling period. For each morphotype, different key sets of host species harboured more hairworms on average (abundance) than others, depending on the stream. For one morphotype in particular, two species of hosts were found to be important population sinks that inhibited over a third of these parasites from completing their life cycle. We also observed a clear peak in abundance for another hairworm morphotype during summer. Our data suggest that hosts emerging from the streams matched their aquatic counterparts with respect to hairworm abundance, indicating no infection-dependent reduction in emergence success. Our findings suggest that, depending on relative community composition, sympatric parasites follow different host transmission pathways, some of which lead to dead ends that potentially impact overall infection dynamics. In turn, this information can help us understand the spread or emergence of disease in both freshwater and terrestrial environments, since hairworms infect terrestrial arthropods to complete their life cycle.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Robert Poulin
- Department of Zoology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
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Doherty JF, Filion A, Bennett J, Raj Bhattarai U, Chai X, de Angeli Dutra D, Donlon E, Jorge F, Milotic M, Park E, Sabadel AJM, Thomas LJ, Poulin R. The people vs science: can passively crowdsourced internet data shed light on host-parasite interactions? Parasitology 2021; 148:1313-1319. [PMID: 34103103 PMCID: PMC11010187 DOI: 10.1017/s0031182021000962] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2021] [Revised: 06/01/2021] [Accepted: 06/04/2021] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Every internet search query made out of curiosity by anyone who observed something in nature, as well as every photo uploaded to the internet, constitutes a data point of potential use to scientists. Researchers have now begun to exploit the vast online data accumulated through passive crowdsourcing for studies in ecology and epidemiology. Here, we demonstrate the usefulness of iParasitology, i.e. the use of internet data for tests of parasitological hypotheses, using hairworms (phylum Nematomorpha) as examples. These large worms are easily noticeable by people in general, and thus likely to generate interest on the internet. First, we show that internet search queries (collated with Google Trends) and photos uploaded to the internet (specifically, to the iNaturalist platform) point to parts of North America with many sightings of hairworms by the public, but few to no records in the scientific literature. Second, we demonstrate that internet searches predict seasonal peaks in hairworm abundance that accurately match scientific data. Finally, photos uploaded to the internet by non-scientists can provide reliable data on the host taxa that hairworms most frequently parasitize, and also identify hosts that appear to have been neglected by scientific studies. Our findings suggest that for any parasite group likely to be noticeable by non-scientists, information accumulating through internet search activity, photo uploads, social media or any other format available online, represents a valuable source of data that can complement traditional scientific data sources in parasitology.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Antoine Filion
- Department of Zoology, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - Jerusha Bennett
- Department of Zoology, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | | | - Xuhong Chai
- Department of Zoology, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | | | - Erica Donlon
- Department of Zoology, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - Fátima Jorge
- Department of Zoology, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - Marin Milotic
- Department of Zoology, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - Eunji Park
- Department of Zoology, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | | | - Leighton J. Thomas
- Department of Zoology, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - Robert Poulin
- Department of Zoology, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand
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5
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Takimoto G, Sato T. Phenology in a community context: Toward a better understanding of the causes and consequences of phenology in seasonal environments. Ecol Res 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/1440-1703.12124] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Gaku Takimoto
- Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences The University of Tokyo Tokyo Japan
| | - Takuya Sato
- Department of Biology, Graduate School of Sciences Kobe University Tokyo Japan
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