Host circadian rhythms are disrupted during malaria infection in parasite genotype-specific manners.

ABSTRACT: Infection can dramatically alter behavioural and physiological traits as hosts become sick and subsequently return to health. Such "sickness behaviours" include disrupted circadian rhythms in both locomotor activity and body temperature. Host sickness behaviours vary in pathogen species-specific manners but the influence of pathogen intraspecific variation is rarely studied. We examine how infection with the murine malaria parasite, Plasmodium chabaudi, shapes sickness in terms of parasite genotype-specific effects on host circadian rhythms. We reveal that circadian rhythms in host locomotor activity patterns and body temperature become differentially disrupted and in parasite genotype-specific manners. Locomotor activity and body temperature in combination provide more sensitive measures

SUBMITTER: Prior KF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6662749 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature