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Endoparasitism in colonial hosts: patterns and processes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2007

B. OKAMURA*
Affiliation:
School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6BX, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Tel: +44 (0)118 378 7059. Fax: +44 (0)118 931 0180. E-mail: b.okamura@reading.ac.uk

Summary

This study begins to redress our lack of knowledge of the interactions between colonial hosts and their parasites by focusing on a novel host-parasite system. Investigations of freshwater bryozoan populations revealed that infection by myxozoan parasites is widespread. Covert infections were detected in all 5 populations studied and were often at high prevalence while overt infections were observed in only 1. Infections were persistent in populations subject to temporal sampling. Negative effects of infection were identified but virulence was low. Infection did not induce mortality in the environmental conditions studied. However, the production of statoblasts (dormant propagules) was greatly reduced in bryozoans with overt infections in comparison to uninfected bryozoans. Overtly-infected bryozoans also grew more slowly and had low fission rates relative to colonies lacking overt infection. Bryozoans with covert infections were smaller than uninfected bryozoans. High levels of vertical transmission were achieved through colony fission and the infection of statoblasts. Increased fission rates may be a strategy for hosts to escape from parasites but the parasite can also exploit the fragmentation of colonial hosts to gain vertical transmission and dispersal. Our study provides evidence that opportunities and constraints for host-parasite co-evolution can be highly dependent on organismal body plans and that low virulence may be associated with exploitation of colonial hosts by endoparasites.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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