Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-b6zl4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-19T03:15:48.731Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Parasites, desiderata lists and the paradox of the organism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

R. Dawkins
R. Dawkins
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Eavesdrop morning coffee at any major centre of evolutionary theory today, and you will find ‘parasite’ to be one of the commonest words in the language. Parasites are touted as prime movers in the evolution of sex, promising the final solution to that problem of problems, the puzzle that led G. C. Williams to proclaim in 1975 ‘a kind of crisis’ at hand in evolutionary biology (Hamilton, 1980; Tooby, 1982; Seger & Hamilton, 1988). Parasites seem to offer a plausible justification for the otherwise futile effort females put into choosing among posturing males (Hamilton & Zuk, 1982; but see Read, 1990). Frequency-dependent selection exerted by parasites is, according to one admittedly minority view, largely responsible for the high levels of diversity found in gene pools (Clarke, 1979). One might even extrapolate to a time when the entire metazoan body could come to be seen as a gigantic adaptation against microscopic pathogens.

Keywords

parasitesevolutionorganism.
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 100 , Issue S1: Symposia of the British Society for Parasitology Volume 27:The evolutionary biology of parasitism , June 1990 , pp. S63 - S73
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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

Batra, L. H. & Batra, S. W. T. (1985). Floral mimicry induced by mummy-berry fungus exploits host pollinators as vectors. Science 228, 1011–12.Google Scholar
Baudoin, M. (1975). Host castration as a parasitic strategy. Evolution 29, 335–52.Google Scholar
Bethel, W. M. & Holmes, J. C. (1973). Altered evasive behaviour and responses to light in amphipods harbouring acanthocephalan cystacanths. Journal of Parasitology 59, 945–56.Google Scholar
Bethel, W. M. & Holmes, J. C. (1977). Increased vulnerability of amphipods to predation owing to altered behaviour induced by larval acanthocephalans. Canadian Journal of Zoology 55, 110–15.Google Scholar
Boorstein, S. M. & Ewald, P. W. (1987). Costs and benefits of behavioural fever in Melanopus sanguinipes infected by Nosema acridophagus. Physiological Zoology 60, 586–95.Google Scholar
Charnov, E. L. (1982). The Theory of Sex Allocation. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cheng, T. C. (1973). General Parasitology. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Clarke, B. C. (1979). The evolution of genetic diversity. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B 205, 453–74.Google ScholarPubMed
Croll, N. A. (1966). Ecology of Parasites. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Crow, J. F. (1979). Genes that violate Mendel's rules. Scientific American 240, 104–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cosmides, L. M. & Tooby, J. (1981). Cytoplasmic inheritance and intragenomic conflict. Journal of Theoretical Biology 89, 83–129.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dawkins, R. (1982). The Extended Phenotype. Oxford: W. H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Dawkins, R. (1989). The Selfish Gene, 2nd Edn.Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dawkins, R. (1986). The Blind Watchmaker. Harlow: Longman.Google Scholar
Vries, De P. J. (1988). The larval ant-organs of Thisbe irenea (Lepidoptera: Riodinidae) and their effects upon attending ants. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 94, 379–93.Google Scholar
Dobson, A. P. (1988). The population biology of parasite-induced changes in host behavior. Quarterly Review of Biology 63, 139–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eberhard, W. G. (1980). Evolutionary consequences of intracellular organelle competition. Quarterly Review of Biology 55, 231–49.Google Scholar
Ewald, P. W. (1980). Evolutionary biology and the treatment of signs and symptoms of infectious disease. Journal of Theoretical Biology 86, 169–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fisher, F. M. (1963). Production of host endocrine substances by parasites. Annals of the New York Academy of Science 113, 63–73.Google Scholar
Giles, N. (1983). Behavioural effects of the parasite Schistocephalus solidus (Cestoda) on an intermediate host, the three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus. Animal Behaviour 31, 1192–4.Google Scholar
Hamilton, S. (1980). Reproduction or shell armor — a trade-off in freshwater gastropods. Bulletin of American Malacological Union 46th Annual MeetingAmerican Malacological UnionLouisville, p. 71 (Abstract).Google Scholar
Hamilton, W. D. (1980). Sex versus non-sex versus parasite. Oikos 35, 282–90.Google Scholar
Hamilton, W. D. & Zuk, M. (1982). Heritable true fitness and bright birds: a role for parasites? Science 218, 384–7.Google Scholar
Holmes, J. C. & Bethel, W. M. (1972). Modification of intermediate host behaviour by parasites. In Behavioural Aspects of Parasite Transmission (ed. Canning, E. U. & Wright, C. A.), pp. 123–149. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Jenni, L., Molyneux, D. H., Livesey, J. L. & Galun, R. (1980). Feeding behaviour of tsetse flies infected with salivarian trypanosomes. Nature, London 283, 383–5.Google Scholar
Keymer, A. & Read, A. (1990). Behavioural ecology: the impact of parasitism. In Parasitism — Co-existence or Conflict (ed. Toft, C. A. & Aeschlimann, A.). Oxford: Oxford University Press (in the Press).Google Scholar
Love, M. (1980). The alien strategy. Natural History 89, 30–2.Google Scholar
Mayr, E. (1963). Animal Species and Evolution. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Milinski, M. (1985). Risk of predation of parasitized sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus L.) under competition for food. Behaviour 93, 203–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minchella, D. J. (1985). Host life-history variation in response to parasitism. Parasitology 90, 205–16.Google Scholar
Minchella, D. J., Leathers, B. K., Brown, K. M. & McNair, J. N. (1985). Host and parasite counteradaptations: an example from a freshwater snail. American Naturalist 126, 843–54.Google Scholar
Moore, J. & Gotelli, N. J. (1990). A phylogenetic perspective on the evolution of host behaviours. In Parasitism and Host Behaviour (ed. Barnard, C. J. & Behnke, J. M.). London: Taylor & Francis (in the Press).Google Scholar
Noble, E. R. & Noble, G. A. (1976). Parasitology: the Biology of Animal Parasites, 4th Edn.Philadelphia: Lee & Febiger.Google Scholar
Phares, C. K. (1987). Plerocercoid growth factor: a homologue of human growth hormone. Parasitology Today 3, 346–9.Google Scholar
Read, A. F. (1990). Parasites and the evolution of host sexual behaviour. In Parasitism and Host Behaviour (ed. Barnard, C. J. & Behnke, J. M.). London: Taylor & Francis (in the Press).Google Scholar
Reinhard, E. G. (1956). Parasitic castration of crustacea. Experimental Parasitology 5, 79–107.Google Scholar
Seger, J. & Hamilton, W. D. (1988). Parasites and sex. In The Evolution of Sex (ed. Michod, R. E. & Levin, B. R.), pp. 176–93. Sunderland, Massachusetts: Sinauer.Google Scholar
Slobodkin, L. B. (1961). Growth and Regulation of Animal Populations. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Smith, D. C. (1979). From extracellular to intracellular: the establishment of a symbiosis. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B 204, 115–30.Google Scholar
Tooby, J. (1982). Pathogens, polymorphism, and the evolution of sex. Journal of Theoretical Biology 97, 557–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weis, A. E., Walton, R. & Crego, C. L. (1988). Reactive plant tissue sites and the population biology of gall makers. Annual Review of Entomology 33, 467–86.Google Scholar
Wickler, W. (1976). Evolution-oriented ethology, kin selection and altruistic parasites. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie 42, 206–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Williams, G. C. (1975). Sex and Evolution. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar