Do brain parasites alter host personality? — Experimental study in minnows

Kekäläinen, Jukka; Lai, Yen-Shin; Vainikka, Anssi; Sirkka, Ilkka; Kortet, Raine

doi:10.1007/s00265-013-1634-2

Cited by 50 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Many populations of the European minnow harbor harmful trematodean and nematodean parasites that likely impose strong indirect and direct mortality on their hosts. In our previous experimental work, we have demonstrated that minnows infected by the trematodean parasite Diplostomum phoxini show higher repeatability in boldness and activity, and reduced repeatability in exploration compared to non-infected fish (Kekäläinen et al, 2014a). (Lai et al, 2012).…”

Section: Natural History Of the Study Speciesmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…It exists also in the brackish water coastal areas of the Baltic Sea. The species adapts well to laboratory conditions and has been used as a model in behavioral studies (e.g., Lai et al, 2013;Kekäläinen et al, 2014a). Many populations of the European minnow harbor harmful trematodean and nematodean parasites that likely impose strong indirect and direct mortality on their hosts.…”

Section: Natural History Of the Study Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the behavioral trials, individual boldness and activity were studied in a three-part plastic arena (Kekäläinen et al, 2014a) (length 54 × width 35 × height 20 cm, water volume 20 l, Figure 1). Each individual was first placed on the small area (i.e., emergence box) at the other end of the arena, where they were allowed to acclimate to experimental conditions for 2 min.…”

Section: Behavioral Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This result would be also in line with the possible parasite-induced behavioral manipulation. We also tested if parasite load would correlate with an individual's personality (see Kekäläinen et al, 2014a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Personality differences in two minnow populations that differ in their parasitism and predation risk

et al. 2015

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Animals are often individually consistent in their behavior, not only over time, but also across different functional contexts. Recent research has focused on phenotypic and evolutionary mechanisms explaining such personality differences through selection. Parasitism and predation induce important mortality and fitness costs, and are thus main candidates to create and maintain personality differences in the wild. Here, we present data on the behavioral consistency of the Eurasian minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus) from two populations that live in different tributaries of the same river, but whose ecological environment differs fundamentally with regard to predation and parasitism. We experimentally demonstrate that individual minnow in both study populations are consistent in their boldness and activity. However, the two study populations differ notably: in the high predation and parasitism risk population fish show higher mean boldness, but tend to be less active than fish in low predation and parasitism risk population. Parasite (Diplostomum phoxini) load was negatively, but not statistically significantly, associated with fish activity level. Our study suggests that parasitism and predation are likely important agents in the ecology and evolution of animal personalities.

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Section: Natural History Of the Study Speciesmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Natural History Of the Study Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Behavioral Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Personality differences in two minnow populations that differ in their parasitism and predation risk

et al. 2015

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“…Some prior studies have identified natural relationships between host personality type and infection status [24][25][26], though fewer studies have experimentally differentiated behaviour-mediated infection from parasite manipulation of behaviour (notable exceptions include: [27,28]) (reviewed in [29]). Others report evidence for associations between host behavioural traits and virus transmission [30], and experimental infections of laboratory animals have generated enormous variation in pathogen shedding rates associated with host traits like co-infection status and immunocompetence [31,32].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual differences in boldness influence patterns of social interactions and the transmission of cuticular bacteria among group-mates

et al. 2016

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Despite the importance of host attributes for the likelihood of associated microbial transmission, individual variation is seldom considered in studies of wildlife disease. Here, we test the influence of host phenotypes on social network structure and the likelihood of cuticular bacterial transmission from exposed individuals to susceptible group-mates using female social spiders (Stegodyphus dumicola). Based on the interactions of resting individuals of known behavioural types, we assessed whether individuals assorted according to their behavioural traits. We found that individuals preferentially interacted with individuals of unlike behavioural phenotypes. We next applied a green fluorescent protein-transformed cuticular bacterium, Pantoea sp., to individuals and allowed them to interact with an unexposed colonymate for 24 h. We found evidence for transmission of bacteria in 55% of cases. The likelihood of transmission was influenced jointly by the behavioural phenotypes of both the exposed and susceptible individuals: transmission was more likely when exposed spiders exhibited higher 'boldness' relative to their colony-mate, and when unexposed individuals were in better body condition. Indirect transmission via shared silk took place in only 15% of cases. Thus, bodily contact appears key to transmission in this system. These data represent a fundamental step towards understanding how individual traits influence larger-scale social and epidemiological dynamics.

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Maternal effects in vulnerability to eye‐parasites and correlations between behavior and parasitism in juvenile Arctic charr

Kortet

Lautala

Kekäläinen

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

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Hatchery‐reared fish show high mortalities after release to the wild environment. Explanations for this include potentially predetermined genetics, behavioral, and physiological acclimation to fish farm environments, and increased vulnerability to predation and parasitism in the wild. We studied vulnerability to Diplostomum spp. parasites (load of eye flukes in the lenses), immune defense (relative spleen size) and antipredator behaviors (approaches toward predator odor, freezing, and swimming activity) in hatchery‐reared juvenile Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) using a nested mating design. Fish were exposed to eye‐fluke larvae via the incoming water at the hatchery. Fish size was positively associated with parasite load, but we did not find any relationship between relative spleen size and parasitism. The offspring of different females showed significant variation in their parasite load within sires, implying a dam effect in the vulnerability to parasites. However, the family background did not have any effect on spleen size. In the mean sire level over dams, the fish from the bolder (actively swimming) families in the predator trials suffered higher loads of eye flukes than those from more cautiously behaving families. Thus, the results indicate potentially maternally inherited differences in vulnerability to eye‐fluke parasites, and that the vulnerability to parasites and behavioral activity are positively associated with each other at the sire level. This could lead to artificial and unintentional selection for increased vulnerability to both parasitism and predation if these traits are favored in fish farm environments.

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Do brain parasites alter host personality? — Experimental study in minnows

Cited by 50 publications

References 56 publications

Personality differences in two minnow populations that differ in their parasitism and predation risk

Personality differences in two minnow populations that differ in their parasitism and predation risk

Individual differences in boldness influence patterns of social interactions and the transmission of cuticular bacteria among group-mates

Maternal effects in vulnerability to eye‐parasites and correlations between behavior and parasitism in juvenile Arctic charr

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