Springe direkt zu Inhalt

Environmental temperature variation influences fitness trade-offs and tolerance in a fish-tapeworm association

Franke F, Armitage SAO, Kutzer MAM, Kurtz J, Scharsack JP – 2017

Increasing temperatures are predicted to strongly impact host-parasite interactions, but empirical tests are rare. Host species that are naturally exposed to a broad temperature spectrum offer the possibility to investigate the effects of elevated temperatures on hosts and parasites. Using three-spined sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus L., and tapeworms, Schistocephalus solidus (Müller, 1776), originating from a cold and a warm water site of a volcanic lake, we subjected sympatric and allopatric host-parasite combinations to cold and warm conditions in a fully crossed design. We predicted that warm temperatures would promote the development of the parasites, while the hosts might benefit from cooler temperatures. We further expected adaptations to the local temperature and mutual adaptations of local host-parasite pairs.Overall, S. solidus parasites grew faster at warm temperatures and stickleback hosts at cold temperatures. On a finer scale, we observed that parasites were able to exploit their hosts more efficiently at the parasite's temperature of origin. In contrast, host tolerance towards parasite infection was higher when sticklebacks were infected with parasites at the parasite's 'foreign' temperature. Cold-origin sticklebacks tended to grow faster and parasite infection induced a stronger immune response.Our results suggest that increasing environmental temperatures promote the parasite rather than the host and that host tolerance is dependent on the interaction between parasite infection and temperature. Sticklebacks might use tolerance mechanisms towards parasite infection in combination with their high plasticity towards temperature changes to cope with increasing parasite infection pressures and rising temperatures.

Title
Environmental temperature variation influences fitness trade-offs and tolerance in a fish-tapeworm association
Author
Franke F, Armitage SAO, Kutzer MAM, Kurtz J, Scharsack JP
Publisher
BioMed Central
Keywords
Environment; Fitness; Gasterosteus aculeatus; Host-parasite interaction; Schistocephalus solidus; Temperature; Tolerance
Date
2017-06-02
Identifier
doi: 10.1186/s13071-017-2192-7
Appeared in
Parasites & Vectors, 10(1): 252
Language
eng
Type
Text
Rights
© The Author(s). 2017