26 papers · ranked by Valyu relevance
Kevin D. Lafferty
Past models have suggested host-parasite coextinction could lead to linear, or concave down relationships between free-living species richness and parasite richness. I explored several models for the relationship between parasite richness and biodiversity loss. Life cycle complexity, low generality of parasites and…
Colin J. Carlson, Anna J. Phillips, Tad A. Dallas, Laura W. Alexander + 1 more
How many parasites are there on Earth? Here, we use helminth parasites to highlight how little is known about parasite diversity, and how insufficient our current approach will be to describe the full scope of life on Earth. Using the largest database of host-parasite associations and one of the world’s largest…
Andrés Gómez, Elizabeth Nichols
Title: Graphical abstract
Deesha Jeppu, Tanvi Kadakol, Nivedita Naveen, Guha Dharmarajan
Elucidating the mechanisms shaping parasite diversity patterns is critical because parasites encompass about 40% of known species, and are crucial for ecosystem structure and function. In free-living species, diversity patterns in the Anthropocene are shaped by niche-breadth because specialists (narrow niche-breadth…
Joshua I. Brian, David C. Aldridge
Parasite conservation is important for the maintenance of ecosystem diversity and function. Conserving parasites relies first on understanding parasite biodiversity and second on estimating the extinction risk to that biodiversity. Although steps have been taken independently in both these areas, previous studies have…
Colin J. Carlson, Oliver C. Muellerklein, Anna J. Phillips, Kevin R. Burgio + 11 more
Parasite conservation is a rapidly growing field at the intersection of ecology, epidemiology, parasitology, and public health. The overwhelming diversity of parasitic life on earth, and recent work showing that parasites and other symbionts face severe extinction risk, necessitates infrastructure for parasite…
Robbert van Himbeeck, Jessica N. Sowa, Hala Tamim El Jarkass, Wenjia Wu + 4 more
High host biodiversity can reduce parasite prevalence, a phenomenon widely studied in macroscopic organisms and termed the ‘dilution effect of disease’. Data from host-parasite dynamics in microbial communities is lacking but is essential to assess the stability of microbial communities under global change. Here, we…
Cornelia Pokalyuk, Anton Wakolbinger
Inspired by DNA data of the human cytomegalovirus we propose a model of a two-type parasite population distributed over its hosts. The parasite is capable to persist in its host till the host dies, and to reinfect other hosts. To maintain type diversity within a host, balancing selection is assumed.
Daniel B. Larremore, Aaron Clauset, Caroline O. Buckee
The var genes of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum present a challenge to population geneticists due to their extreme diversity, which is generated by high rates of recombination. These genes encode a primary antigen protein called PfEMP1, which is expressed on the surface of infected red blood cells and…
Brooke A. McPhail, Sara Tomusiak, Hannah Veinot, Neill Dodds + 1 more
Previous research has shown that host diversity and heterogeneity promote parasite abundance and heterogeneity by creating additional niches for parasites to occupy. Central Alberta, Canada, sees a diverse array of native and migratory species each year. A previous snail–trematode survey conducted at six lakes in…
Robbert van Himbeeck, Jessica N. Sowa, Hala Tamim El Jarkass, Wenjia Wu + 4 more
'Wenjia Wu' 'Job Oude Vrielink' 'Joost A. G. Riksen' 'Aaron Reinke' 'Lisa van Sluijs'] Host diversity can affect parasite prevalence, a phenomenon widely studied in macroscopic organisms. However, data from microscopic communities are lacking, despite their essential role in ecosystem functioning and the unique…
Caroline R Amoroso, Charles L Nunn
Humans have undergone a series of epidemiological transitions that have changed the composition and richness of their parasites . New zoonotic infections emerged when humans shifted from a hunting-and-gathering mode of subsistence to a more settled, agriculture-based lifestyle that included close contact with…
Marcos A. Vannier-Santos, Henrique L. Lenzi
This paper presents many types of interplays between parasites and the host, showing the history of parasites, the effects of parasites on the outcome of wars, invasions, migrations, and on the development of numerous regions of the globe, and the impact of parasitic diseases on the society and on the course of human…
Ofir Hirshberg, Frida Ben-Ami
In freshwater communities, organisms interact in a variety of ways, including predation, competition and parasitism. Parasites are ubiquitous, playing an important role in shaping freshwater communities. Endoparasites live within internal organs of their host, while ectoparasites, also known as epibionts, are confined…
Christopher Finn McQuaid, N. F. Britton
Patterns of nestedness and specialization asymmetry, where specialist species interact mainly with generalists while generalists interact with both generalists and specialists, are often observed in mutualistic and antagonistic bi-partite ecological networks. These have been explained in terms of the relative abundance…
Jérôme G. Prunier, Keoni Saint‐Pé, Simon Blanchet, Géraldine Loot + 1 more
Inferring parameters related to the aggregation pattern of parasites and to their dispersal propensity is important for predicting their ecological consequences and evolutionary potential. Nonetheless, it is notoriously difficult to infer these parameters from wildlife parasites given the difficulty in tracking these…
Wolfgang Stephan, Aurélien Tellier
Between-species coevolution, and in particular antagonistic host-parasite coevolution, is a major process shaping within-species diversity. In this paper we investigate the role of various stochastic processes affecting the outcome of the deterministic coevolutionary models. Specifically, we assess 1) the impact of…
Authors not listed
Background: Leishmania parasites cause neglected tropical diseases such as cutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis, which have limited treatment options and rising drug resistance. Protein kinases are pivotal in Leishmania biology and attractive drug targets, but their functional status in the parasite remains largely…
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Heterotrophic protists can be considered the dark matter of microbial communities in engineered water systems. They are ubiquitous and ecologically significant, yet remain largely overlooked. Although a growing body of research demonstrates their pivotal roles (e.g., predation, symbiosis, and nutrient cycling) in…
Rebecca H. Chisholm, Jake A. Lacey, Jan Kokko, Patricia T. Campbell + 6 more
naturally-acquired immunity is enduring and strain-specific Authors: ['Rebecca H. Chisholm' 'Jake A. Lacey' 'Jan Kokko' 'Patricia T. Campbell' 'Malcolm McDonald' 'Jukka Corander' 'Mark R. Davies' 'Steven Y. C. Tong' 'Jodie McVernon' 'Nicholas Geard'] The bacterium Group A Streptococcus (Streptococcus pyogenes, GAS) is…
Oksana Desiatkina, Martin Mösching, Nicoleta Anghel, Ghalia Boubaker + 4 more
Aiming to generate novel compounds with improved antitoxoplama activity by exploiting the parasite auxotrophies, a library of nucleic base-tethered trithiolato-bridged dinuclear ruthenium(II)-arene conjugates - was synthesized and evaluated. Various structural features as the nucleobase (adenine, uracil, cytosine…
Song Xu, Lucas Böttcher, Tom Chou
Diversity indices are useful single-number metrics for characterizing a complex distribution of a set of attributes across a population of interest. The utility of these different metrics or sets of metrics depend on the context and application, and whether a predictive mechanistic model exists. In this topical review…
Authors not listed
Trypanosomiasis is one of the World’s Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) that affects both man and animals. The current control measures are mostly chemotherapeutic which face numerous challenges such as non availability of drugs, toxicity and long term protocol. These challenges have made researchers look for…
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In this study, we investigated the antiplasmodial properties of a series of fluorinated peptoid-capped histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) against asexual blood stages of the drug-sensitive 3D7 and drug-resistant Dd2 strains of Plasmodium falciparum, as well as the exo-erythrocytic liver stages and mature…
Authors not listed
Neglected tropical diseases caused by trypanosomatid parasites such as Leishmania, Trypanosoma brucei and Trypanosoma cruzi present a major public healthcare issue due in part to emerging resistance. Exploring multiple targeting ligands, conjugates composed of analogs from the ribosomal inhibitor anisomycin and…
Authors not listed
Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a group of infectious diseases that affect impoverished regions and remain under-researched due to their limited presence on the global health agenda. One such disease is schistosomiasis, caused by the parasite Schistosoma mansoni. To identify potential new treatments for…