作者
Anand Vasudevan, Vineet Kumar, Yin Ning Chiang, Joanne Y Yew, Sabna Cheemadan, Ajai Vyas
发表日期
2015/9
期刊
The ISME journal
卷号
9
期号
9
页码范围
2112-2115
出版商
Oxford University Press
简介
Uninfected female rats (Rattus novergicus) exhibit greater attraction to the males infected with protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. This phenomenon is contrary to the aversion towards infected males observed in multitude of other host–parasite associations. In this report, we describe a proximate mechanism for this anomaly. We demonstrate that T. gondii infection enhances hepatic production and urinary excretion of α2u-globulins in rats. We further demonstrate that α2u-globulins are sufficient to recapitulate male sexual attractiveness akin to effects of the infection. This manipulation possibly results in greater horizontal transmission of this parasite between the infected male and the uninfected female. It supports the notion that in some evolutionary niches parasites can alter host sexual signaling, likely leading to an increased rate of sexual transmission.
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A Vasudevan, V Kumar, Y Ning Chiang, JY Yew… - The ISME journal, 2015