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The impact of host starvation on parasite development and population dynamics in an intestinal trypanosome parasite of bumble bees

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2005

A. LOGAN ,
M. X. RUIZ-GONZÁLEZ  and
M. J. F. BROWN
A. LOGAN
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
M. X. RUIZ-GONZÁLEZ
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
M. J. F. BROWN
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
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Abstract

Host nutrition plays an important role in determining the development and success of parasitic infections. While studies of vertebrate hosts are accumulating, little is known about how host nutrition affects parasites of invertebrate hosts. Crithidia bombi is a gut trypanosome parasite of the bumble bee, Bombus terrestris and here we use it as a model system to determine the impact of host nutrition on the population dynamics and development of micro-parasites in invertebrates. Pollen-starved bees supported significantly smaller populations of the parasite. In pollen-fed bees the parasite showed a temporal pattern in development, with promastigote transmission stages appearing at the start of the infection and gradually being replaced by choanomastigote and amastigote forms. In pollen-starved bees this developmental process was disrupted, and there was no pattern in the appearance of these three forms. We discuss the implications of these results for parasite transmission, and speculate about the mechanisms behind these changes.

Keywords

trypanosomesCrithidia bombibumble beesBombus terrestrishost nutritionpopulation dynamics
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 130 , Issue 6 , June 2005 , pp. 637 - 642
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

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