Salt marshes are home to tiny crustaceans called amphipods that keep a low profile: Their gray-brown coloring helps them blend in with their surroundings, and they spend most of their time hiding under vegetation. But when amphipods are infected with a parasitic worm called a trematode, they turn bright orange and lose their tendency to run for cover when exposed. This bizarre behavior makes them stand out to predators—as well to scientists.
, Brown researchers provide a detailed analysis of the molecular mechanisms that allow the parasites to manipulate their hosts, and explain what's happening to the"Characterizing the molecular mechanisms of manipulation is important to advancing understanding of–parasite coevolution," said study author David Rand, a professor of natural history and chair of the ecology, evolution and organismal biology department at Brown.
While foodborne trematodes can make humans very sick, they don't have the same type of"zombie" effect. The amphipod system is closer to a malaria example, Rand noted, where the plasmodium parasite is carried by a mosquito that serves as an intermediate host. Studies have shown that mosquitos carrying the parasite can be more attracted to humans than to uninflected mosquitoes.
Amphipods infected by a parasitic trematode change color from light grey or brown to orange and move into more exposed areas of salt marshes, which, scientists hypothesize, may increase rates of predation. Credit: David Johnson In the new study, the scientists used RNA sequencing to identify genes whose function match the three big changes in the host's traits. They discovered that trematode infection results in activation of amphipod gene transcripts associated with pigmentation and detection of external stimuli, and suppression of multiple amphipod gene transcripts implicated in immune responses.
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