Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T10:59:30.317Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Do parasites adopt different strategies in different intermediate hosts? Host size, not host species, influences Coitocaecum parvum (Trematoda) life history strategy, size and egg production

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 October 2012

R. RUIZ DANIELS
Affiliation:
Université de Poitiers, UMR CNRS 7267, Laboratoire EBI Ecologie & Biologie des Interactions, Equipe Ecologie Evolution Symbiose, Poitiers, France University of Otago, Department of Zoology, Dunedin, New Zealand
S. BELTRAN
Affiliation:
Université de Poitiers, UMR CNRS 7267, Laboratoire EBI Ecologie & Biologie des Interactions, Equipe Ecologie Evolution Symbiose, Poitiers, France
R. POULIN
Affiliation:
University of Otago, Department of Zoology, Dunedin, New Zealand
C. LAGRUE*
Affiliation:
University of Otago, Department of Zoology, Dunedin, New Zealand
*
*Corresponding author: Department of Zoology, University of Otago, 340 Great King Street, PO Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand, Tel: +64 3479 7986. Fax: +64 3479 7584. E-mail: clement.lagrue@gmail.com

Summary

Host exploitation induces host defence responses and competition between parasites, resulting in individual parasites facing highly variable environments. Alternative life strategies may thus be expressed in context-dependent ways, depending on which host species is used and intra-host competition between parasites. Coitocaecum parvum (Trematode) can use facultative progenesis in amphipod intermediate hosts, Paracalliope fluviatilis, to abbreviate its life cycle in response to such environmental factors. Coitocaecum parvum also uses another amphipod host, Paracorophium excavatum, a species widely different in size and ecology from P. fluviatilis. In this study, parasite infection levels and strategies in the two amphipod species were compared to determine whether the adoption of progenesis by C. parvum varied between these two hosts. Potential differences in size and/or egg production between C. parvum individuals according to amphipod host species were also investigated. Results show that C. parvum life strategy was not influenced by host species. In contrast, host size significantly affected C. parvum strategy, size and egg production. Since intra-host interactions between co-infecting parasites also influenced C. parvum strategy, size and fecundity, it is highly likely that within-host resource limitations affect C. parvum life strategy and overall fitness regardless of host species.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anurag, A. (2001). Phenotypic plasticity in the interactions and evolution of species. Science 294, 321326.Google Scholar
Brown, S. P. (1999). Cooperation and conflict in host-manipulating parasites. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B 266, 18991904.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, S. P., De Lorgeril, J., Joly, C. and Thomas, F. (2003). Field evidence for density-dependent effects in the trematode Microphallus papillorobustus in its manipulated host, Gammarus insensibilis. Journal of Parasitology 89, 668672.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coats, J., Nakagawa, S. and Poulin, R. (2010). The consequences of parasitic infections for host behavioural correlations and repeatability. Behaviour 147, 367382.Google Scholar
Fredensborg, B. L. and Poulin, R. (2005). Larval helminths in intermediate hosts: does competition early in life determine the fitness of adult parasites? International Journal for Parasitology 35, 10611070.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gower, C. M. and Webster, J. P. (2005). Intraspecific competition and the evolution of virulence in a parasitic trematode. Evolution 59, 544553.Google Scholar
Grutter, A. S. and Poulin, R. (1998). Intraspecific and interspecific relationships between host size and the abundance of parasitic larval gnathiid isopods on coral reef fishes. Marine Ecology Progress Series 164, 263271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, E. K. and Poulin, R. (2005). Impact of a microphallid trematode on the behaviour and survival of its isopod intermediate host: phylogenetic inheritance? Parasitology Research 97, 242246.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holton, A. L. (1984 a). A redescription of Coitocaecum parvum Crowcroft, 1945 (Digenea: Allocreadiidae) from crustacean and fish hosts in Canterbury. New Zealand Journal of Zoology 11, 18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holton, A. L. (1984 b). Progenesis as a mean of abbreviating life histories in two New Zealand trematodes, Coitocaecum parvum Crowfton, 1945 and Stegodexamene anguillae MacFarlane, 1951. Mauri Ora 11, 6370.Google Scholar
Johnson, K. P., Bush, S. E. and Clayton, D. H. (2005). Correlated evolution of host and parasite body size: tests of Harrison's rule using birds and lice. Evolution 59, 17441753.Google ScholarPubMed
Lagrue, C. and Poulin, R. (2007). Life cycle abbreviation in the trematode Coitocaecum parvum: can parasites adjust to variable conditions? Journal of Evolutionary Biology 20, 11891195.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lagrue, C. and Poulin, R. (2008 a). Intra- and interspecific competition among helminth parasites: effects on Coitocaecum parvum life history strategy, size and fecundity. International Journal for Parasitology 38, 14351444.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lagrue, C. and Poulin, R. (2008 b). Lack of seasonal variation in the life-history strategies of the trematode Coitocaecum parvum: no apparent environmental effect. Parasitology 135, 12431251.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lagrue, C. and Poulin, R. (2009 a). Heritability and short-term effects of inbreeding in the progenetic trematode Coitocaecum parvum: is there a need for the definitive host? Parasitology 136, 231240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lagrue, C. and Poulin, R. (2009 b). Life cycle abbreviation in trematode parasites and the developmental time hypothesis: is the clock ticking? Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22, 17271738.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lagrue, C., Poulin, R. and Keeney, D. B. (2009). Effects of clonality in multiple infections on the life-history strategy of the trematode Coitocaecum parvum in its amphipod intermediate host. Evolution 63, 14171426.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lefèbvre, F. and Poulin, R. (2005). Progenesis in digenean trematodes: a taxonomic and synthetic overview of species reproducing in their second intermediate hosts. Parasitology 130, 587605.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Luque, J. L., Bannock, L. M., Lagrue, C. and Poulin, R. (2007). Larval Hysterothy-lacium sp. (Nematoda, Anisakidae) and trematode metacercariae from the amphipod Paracorophium excavatum (Corphiidae) in New Zealand. Acta Parasitologica 52, 146150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luque, J. L., Vieira, F. M., Herrmann, K., King, T. M., Poulin, R. and Lagrue, C. (2010). New evidence on a cold case: trophic transmission, distribution and host specificity in Hedruris spinigera (Nematoda: Hedruridae). Folia Parasitologica 57, 223231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacFarlane, W. V. (1939). Life cycle of Coitocaecum anaspidis Hickman, a New Zealand digenetic trematode. Parasitology 31, 172184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, G. A., Chubb, J. C., Roberts, G. N., Michaud, M. and Milinski, M. (2003). Optimal growth strategies of larval helminths in their intermediate hosts. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 16, 4754.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paterson, S. and Piertney, S. B. (2011). Frontiers in host-parasite ecology and evolution. Molecular Ecology 20, 869871.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Poulin, R. (2007). Evolutionary Ecology of Parasites. 2nd Edn, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poulin, R. and Cribb, T. H. (2002). Trematode life cycles: short is sweet? Trends in Parasitology 18, 176183.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Poulin, R., Nichol, K. and Latham, A. D. M. (2003). Host sharing and host manipulation by larval helminths in shore crabs: cooperation or conflict? International Journal for Parasitology 33, 425433.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rauch, G., Kalbe, M. and Reusch, T. B. H. (2005). How a complex life cycle can improve a parasite's sex life. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 18, 10691075.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
R Development Core Team (2011). R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. Vienn, Austria. ISBN 3-900051-07-0, URL http://www.R-project.org/.Google Scholar
Read, A. F. and Taylor, L. H. (2001). The ecology of genetically diverse infections. Science 292, 10991102.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rousset, F., Thomas, F., de Meeüs, T. and Renaud, F. (1996). Inference of parasite-induced mortality from distributions of parasite loads. Ecology 77, 22032211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saad-Fares, A. and Combes, C. (1992). Abundance/host size relationship in a fish trematode community. Journal of Helminthology 66, 187192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schnabel, K. E., Hogg, I. D. and Chapman, M. A. (2000). Population genetic structure of two New Zealand corophiid amphipods and the presence of morphologically cryptic species: implications for the conservation of diversity. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 34, 637644.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, F., Brown, S. P., Sukhdeo, M. and Renaud, F. (2002 a). Understanding parasite strategies: a state-dependent approach? Trends in Parasitology 18, 387390.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thomas, F., Fauchier, J. and Lafferty, K. D. (2002 b). Conflict of interest between a nematode and a trematode in an amphipod host: test of the “sabotage” hypothesis. Behavioural and Ecological Sociobiology 51, 296301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, F., Renaud, F., Rousset, F., Cézilly, F. and de Meeüs, T. (1995). Differential mortality of two closely related host species induced by one parasite. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 260, 349352.Google Scholar
Van Valen, L. (1974). Molecular evolution as predicted by natural selection. Journal of Molecular Evolution 3, 89101.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed