ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2019
Toxins or medicines? Phytoplankton diets mediate host and parasite fitness in a freshwater system.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 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
15 citing papers in PubMed, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- From bystander to key player: unveiling the gut microbiota's role in mediating cyanobacterial toxicity in aquatic animals.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2026Article
- Animal medical systems from Apis to apes: history, recent advances and future perspectives.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Review
- Natural and lab-derived microbiomes differentially shape stressor interaction patterns of Daphnia magna.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Food Webs and Feedbacks: The Untold Ecological Relevance of Antimicrobial Resistance as Seen in Harmful Algal Blooms.Microorganisms · 2024Review
- Microsporidian coinfection reduces fitness of a fungal pathogen due to rapid host mortality.mBio · 2024Article
- Inhibition of gut digestive proteases by cyanobacterial diets decreases infection in aEcology and evolution · 2024Article
- Pathways linking nutrient enrichment, habitat structure, and parasitism to host-resource interactions.Oecologia · 2024Article
- Incorporating Microbial Species Interaction in Management of Freshwater Toxic Cyanobacteria: A Systems Science Challenge.Aquatic ecology · 2022Article
- Review
- Behavioral Avoidance Response ofBiology · 2022Article
- Eco-bioengineering tools in ecohydrological assessment of eutrophic water bodies.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2022Review
- Sequential infection ofParasitology · 2021Article
- Article
- Toxins or medicines? Phytoplankton diets mediate host and parasite fitness in a freshwater system.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- High Protistan Parasite Occurrence During Fall in a Warm, Low Sea Ice Year in the Eastern Bering Sea.The Journal of eukaryotic microbiologyArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Diets must satisfy the everyday metabolic requirements of organisms and can also serve as medicines to combat disease. Currently, the medicinal role of diets is much better understood in terrestrial than in aquatic ecosystems. This is surprising because phytoplankton species synthesize secondary metabolites with known antimicrobial properties. Here, we investigated the medicinal properties of phytoplankton (including toxin-producing cyanobacteria) against parasites of the dominant freshwater herbivore, Daphnia. We fed Daphnia dentifera on green algae and toxic cyanobacteria diets known to vary in their nutritional quality and toxin production, and an additional diet of Microcystis with added pure microcystin-LR. We then exposed Daphnia to fungal and bacterial parasites. Anabaena, Microcystis and Chlorella diets prevented infection of Daphnia by the fungal parasite Metschnikowia, while Nodularia toxins increased offspring production by infected hosts. In contrast to their medicinal effects against Metschnikowia, toxic phytoplankton generally decreased the fitness of Daphnia infected with the bacterial parasite, Pasteuria. We also measured the amount of toxin produced by phytoplankton over time. Concentrations of anatoxin-a produced by Anabaena increased in the presence of Metschnikowia, suggesting parasite-induced toxin production. Our research illustrates that phytoplankton can serve as toxins or medicines for their consumers, depending upon the identity of their parasites.
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.