No evidence for quorum sensing during egg hatching in the cestode <i>Schistocephalus solidus</i>.

ABSTRACT: Schistocephalus solidus, a parasitic cestode with a multi-host life cycle, reproduces in its terminal host either by outcrossing with similarly sized individuals or selfing. Previous work found that selfing greatly depresses egg hatching rates, presumably as a result of inbreeding depression. We designed an experiment to test whether S. solidus evolved quorum sensing (QS) during hatching as a mechanism to facilitate synchronized infection, thereby increasing the opportunity for outcrossing in its terminal host. We also performed exploratory analyses to test whether QS varies across parasite populations and cross type (i.e., whether progeny were produced via outcrossing or selfing), though these had limited statistical power due to low sample sizes across treatme

SUBMITTER: Kerns EV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12880099 | biostudies-literature | 2026

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature