Natural variation in host feeding behaviors impacts host disease and pathogen transmission potential.

ABSTRACT: Animals ranging from mosquitoes to humans often vary their feeding behavior when infected or merely exposed to pathogens. These so-called "sickness behaviors" are part of the innate immune response with many consequences, including avoiding orally transmitted pathogens. Fully understanding the role of this ubiquitous behavior in host defense and pathogen evolution requires a quantitative account of its impact on host and pathogen fitness across environmentally relevant contexts. Here, we use a zooplankton host and fungal pathogen as a case study to ask if infection-mediated feeding behaviors vary across pathogen exposure levels and natural genetic variation in susceptibility to infection. Then, we connect these changes in behavior to pathogen transmission potential (spore yield) and fitnes

SUBMITTER: Pfenning-Butterworth AC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9992943 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature