Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T12:30:55.039Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cost of interspecific competition between trematode colonies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2020

K.N. Mouritsen Open the ORCID record for K.N. Mouritsen [Opens in a new window]  and
C.K. Elkjær
K.N. Mouritsen*
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Aquatic Biology, Aarhus University, Ole Worms Allé 1, 8000Aarhus C, Denmark
C.K. Elkjær
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Aquatic Biology, Aarhus University, Ole Worms Allé 1, 8000Aarhus C, Denmark
*
Author for correspondence: K.N. Mouritsen, E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In a range of trematode species, specific members of the parthenitae colony infecting the molluscan first intermediate host appear specialized for defence against co-infecting species. The evolution of such division of labour requires that co-infection entails fitness costs. Yet, this premise has very rarely been tested in species showing division of labour. Using Himasthla elongata (Himasthlidae) and Renicola roscovita (Renicolidae) infecting periwinkles Littorina littorea as study system, we show that the size of emerged cercariae is markedly reduced in both parasite species when competing over host resources. Cercarial longevity, on the other hand, is negatively influenced by competition only in R. roscovita. Season, which may impact the nutritional state of the host, also affects cercarial size, but only in H. elongata. Hence, our study underlines that cercarial quality is, indeed, compromised by competition, not only in the inferior R. roscovita (no division of labour) but also in the competitively superior H. elongata (division of labour).

Keywords

Caste formationcercarial longevitycercarial sizedivision of labourfitness costHimasthla elongataintramolluscan competitionparthenitaeRenicola roscovitatrematode antagonism
Type
Research Paper
Information
Journal of Helminthology , Volume 94 , 2020 , e139
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Basch, PF, Joe, LK and Heyneman, D (1970) Experimental double and triple infections of snails with larval trematodes. The Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health 1, 129–137.Google Scholar
Galaktionov, KV and Dobrovolskij, AA (2003) The biology and evolution of trematodes. Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galaktionov, KV, Podvyaznaya, IM, Nikolaev, KE and Levakin, IA (2015) Self-sustaining infrapopulation or colony? Redial clonal groups of Himasthla elongata (Mehlis, 1831) (Trematoda: Echinostomatidae) in Littorina littorea (Linnaeus) (Gastropoda: Littorinidae) do not support the concept of eusocial colonies in trematodes. Folia Parasitologica 62, 067.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garcia-Vedrenne, AE, Quintana, ACE, DeRogatis, AM, Dover, CM, Lopez, M, Kuris, AM and Hechinger, RF (2017) Trematodes with a reproductive division of labour: heterophyids also have a soldier caste and early infections reveal how colonies become structured. International Journal for Parasitology 47, 41–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ginetsinskaya, TA (1988) Trematodes: their life cycles, biology and evolution. New Delhi, Amerind Publishing Co, Pvt. Ltd.Google Scholar
Hechinger, RF, Lafferty, KD, Manchini, FT III, Warner, RR and Kuris, AM (2009) How larger is the hand in the puppet? Ecological and evolutionary factors affecting body mass of 15 trematode parasitic castrators in their snail host. Evolutionary Ecology 23, 651–667.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hechinger, RF, Wood, AC and Kuris, AM (2011) Social organization in a flatworm: trematode parasites for soldier and reproductive castes. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 278, 656–665.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuris, AM and Lafferty, KD (1994) Community structure: larval trematodes in snail hosts. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 25, 189–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawson, JR and Wilson, RA (1980) The survival of the cercariae of Schistosoma mansoni in relation to water temperature and glycogen utilization. Parasitology 81, 337–348.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leung, TLF and Poulin, R (2011) Small worms, big appetites: ratios of different functional morphs in relation to interspecific competition in trematode parasites. International Journal for Parasitology 41, 1063–1068.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lie, KJ, Basch, PF and Umathevy, T (1965) Antagonism between two species of larval trematodes in the same snail. Nature 206, 422–423.Google Scholar
Lim, HK and Heyneman, D (1972) Intramolluscan intertrematode antagonism: a review of factors influencing the host-parasite system and its possible role in biological control. Advances in Parasitology 10, 191–268.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lloyd, MM and Poulin, R (2012) Fitness benefits of a division of labour in parasitic trematode colonies with and without competition. International Journal for Parasitology 42, 939–946.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lloyd, MM and Poulin, R (2013) Reproduction and caste ratios under stress in trematode colonies with a division of labour. Parasitology 140, 825–832.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miura, O (2012) Social organization and caste formation in three additional parasitic flatworm species. Marine Ecology Progress Series 465, 119–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mouritsen, KN and Andersen, C (2017) Worms at war: interspecific parasite competition and host resources alter trematode colony structure and fitness. Parasitology 144, 1530–1542.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mouritsen, KN and Halvorsen, FJ (2015) Social flatworms: the minor caste is adapted for attacking competing parasites. Marine Biology 162, 1503–1509.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nielsen, SS, Johansen, M and Mouritsen, KN (2014) Caste formation in larval Himasthla elongata (Trematoda) infecting common periwinkles Littorina littorea. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 94, 917–923.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poulin, R (1997) Egg production in adult trematodes: adaptation or constraint? Parasitology 114, 195–204.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Poulin, R and Latham, DM (2003) Effects of initial (larval) size and host body temperature on growth in trematodes. Canadian Journal of Zoology 81, 574–581.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poulin, R, Kamiya, T and Lagrue, C (2019) Evolution, phylogenetic distribution and functional ecology of division of labour in trematodes. Parasites & Vectors 12, 5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seppälä, O, Liljeroos, K, Karvonen, A and Jokela, J (2008) Host condition as a constraint for parasite reproduction. Oikos 117, 749–753.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sousa, WP (1993) Interspecific antagonism and species coexistence in a diverse guild of larval trematode parasites. Ecological Monographs 63, 103–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trouvé, S, Sasal, P, Jourdane, J, Renaud, F and Morand, S (1998) The evolution of life-history traits in parasitic and free-living plathyhelminthes: a new perspective. Oecologia 115, 370–378.Google Scholar
Walker, JC (1979) Autrobilharzia terrigalensis: a schistosome dominant in interspecific interactions in the molluscan host. International Journal for Parasitology 9, 137–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Werding, B (1969) Morphologie, entwicklung und ökologie digener trematoden-larven der strandschnecke Littorina littorea. Marine Biology 3, 306–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, CA (1956) Studies on the life-history and ecology of the trematode genus Renicola Cohn, 1904. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 126, 1–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar