ArticlePloS one2011
Disease and the extended phenotype: parasites control host performance and survival through induced changes in body plan.
Article in PloS one, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 96 citations in OpenAlex.
- Investigating the potential neurotoxic effects of cell-free factors by Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis on locomotion in Xenopus laevis.Biology open · 2026Article
- Parasite-Driven host manipulation: The case of trematodes in Neotropical tadpoles.International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2024Article
- Outbreak of parasite-induced limb malformations in a declining amphibian species in Colorado.International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2024Article
- Parasite prevalence is determined by infection state- and risk-dependent dispersal of the host.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Endocrine disruption in teleosts and amphibians is mediated by anthropogenic and natural environmental factors: implications for risk assessment.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Into the danger zone: How the within-host distribution of parasites controls virulence.Ecology letters · 2024Article
- Context-dependent parasite infection affects trophic niche in populations of sympatric stickleback species.Parasitology · 2022Article
- How predator and parasite size interact to determine consumption of infectious stages.Oecologia · 2021Article
- Disease's hidden death toll: Using parasite aggregation patterns to quantify landscape-level host mortality in a wildlife system.The Journal of animal ecology · 2020Article
- Mite load predicts the quality of sexual color and locomotor performance in a sexually dichromatic lizard.Ecology and evolution · 2020Article
- Phenological synchrony shapes pathology in host-parasite systems.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Specialized structures on the border between rhizocephalan parasites and their host's nervous system reveal potential sites for host-parasite interactions.Scientific reports · 2020Article
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- Noxious newts and their natural enemies: Experimental effects of tetrodotoxin exposure on trematode parasites and aquatic macroinvertebrates.Toxicon : official journal of the International Society on Toxinology · 2017Article
- Pathogenic endoparasites of the spotted seatrout, Cynoscion nebulosus: patterns of infection in estuaries of South Carolina, USA.Parasitology research · 2017Article
- Combined Effects of Pesticides and Trematode Infections on Hourglass Tree Frog Polypedates cruciger.EcoHealth · 2016Article
- Experimental Infections of Bluegill with the Trematode Ribeiroia ondatrae (Digenea: Cathaemasiidae): Histopathology and Hematological Response.Journal of aquatic animal health · 2015Article
- Development and application of an eDNA method to detect and quantify a pathogenic parasite in aquatic ecosystems.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2015Article
- In situ effects of pesticides on amphibians in the Sierra Nevada.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundBy definition, parasites harm their hosts. However, some forms of parasite-induced alterations increase parasite transmission between hosts, such that manipulated hosts can be considered extensions of the parasite's phenotype. While well accepted in principle, surprisingly few studies have quantified how parasite manipulations alter host performance and survival under field and laboratory conditions. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL
findingsBy interfering with limb development, the trematode Ribeiroia ondatrae causes particularly severe morphological alterations within amphibian hosts that provide an ideal system to evaluate parasite-induced changes in phenotype. Here, we coupled laboratory performance trials with a capture-mark-recapture study of 1388 Pacific chorus frogs (Pseudacris regilla) to quantify the effects of parasite-induced malformations on host locomotion, foraging, and survival. Malformations, which affected ∼ 50% of metamorphosing frogs in nature, caused dramatic reductions in all measures of organismal function. Malformed frogs exhibited significantly shorter jumping distances (41% reduction), slower swimming speeds (37% reduction), reduced endurance (66% reduction), and lower foraging success relative to infected hosts without malformations. Furthermore, while normal and malformed individuals had comparable survival within predator-free exclosures, deformed frogs in natural populations had 22% lower biweekly survival than normal frogs and rarely recruited to the adult population over a two-year period. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results highlight the ability of parasites to deeply alter multiple dimensions of host phenotype with important consequences for performance and survival. These patterns were best explained by malformation status, rather than infection per se, helping to decouple the direct and indirect effects of parasitism on host fitness.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.