ArticlePloS one2012
Disease dynamics in a specialized parasite of ant societies.
Article in PloS one, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Taxonomy, phylogeny and diversity of hyperparasites and their allied entomopathogens inStudies in mycology · 2026Article
- Digging into the evolutionary history of the fungus-growing-ant symbiont, Escovopsis (Hypocreaceae).Communications biology · 2025Article
- There is gold in the graveyard: a new lineage of zombie-ant fungi in the genusFungal systematics and evolution · 2025Article
- Consequences of "zombie-making" and generalist fungal pathogens on carpenter ant microbiota.Current research in insect science · 2025Article
- With the dead under the mat: the zombie ant extended phenotype under a new perspective.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2024Article
- Hijacking time: How Ophiocordyceps fungi could be using ant host clocks to manipulate behavior.Parasite immunology · 2022Review
- Genetic Underpinnings of Host Manipulation byG3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2020Article
- Variation and correlations between sexual, asexual and natural enemy resistance life-history traits in a natural plant pathogen population.BMC evolutionary biology · 2019Article
- Pathogen dynamics under both bottom-up host resistance and top-down hyperparasite attack.The Journal of applied ecology · 2018Article
- Local adaptation at higher trophic levels: contrasting hyperparasite-pathogen infection dynamics in the field and laboratory.Molecular ecology · 2017Article
- Tales from the crypt: a parasitoid manipulates the behaviour of its parasite host.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2017Article
- Evidence for Widespread Associations between Neotropical Hymenopteran Insects and Actinobacteria.Frontiers in microbiology · 2017Article
- The role of hyperparasitism in microbial pathogen ecology and evolution.The ISME journal · 2016Review
- Gene expression during zombie ant biting behavior reflects the complexity underlying fungal parasitic behavioral manipulation.BMC genomics · 2015Article
- Long-term disease dynamics for a specialized parasite of ant societies: a field study.PloS one · 2014Article
- Foraging ants trade off further for faster: use of natural bridges and trunk trail permanency in carpenter ants.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2013Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Coevolution between ant colonies and their rare specialized parasites are intriguing, because lethal infections of workers may correspond to tolerable chronic diseases of colonies, but the parasite adaptations that allow stable coexistence with ants are virtually unknown. We explore the trade-offs experienced by Ophiocordyceps parasites manipulating ants into dying in nearby graveyards. We used field data from Brazil and Thailand to parameterize and fit a model for the growth rate of graveyards. We show that parasite pressure is much lower than the abundance of ant cadavers suggests and that hyperparasites often castrate Ophiocordyceps. However, once fruiting bodies become sexually mature they appear robust. Such parasite life-history traits are consistent with iteroparity--a reproductive strategy rarely considered in fungi. We discuss how tropical habitats with high biodiversity of hyperparasites and high spore mortality has likely been crucial for the evolution and maintenance of iteroparity in parasites with low dispersal potential.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.