Mario X. Ruiz-González

The impact of host starvation on parasite development and population dynamics in an intestinal trypanosome parasite of bumble bees

Host nutrition plays an important role in determining the development and success of parasitic infections. While studies of vertebrate hosts are accumulating, little is known about how host nutrition affects parasites of invertebrate hosts. Crithidia bombi is a gut trypanosome parasite of the bumble bee, Bombus terrestris and here we use it as a model system to determine the impact of host nutrition on the population dynamics and development of micro-parasites in invertebrates. Pollen-starved bees supported significantly smaller populations of the parasite. In pollen-fed bees the parasite showed a temporal pattern in development, with promastigote transmission stages appearing at the start of the infection and gradually being replaced by choanomastigote and amastigote forms. In pollen-starved bees this developmental process was disrupted, and there was no pattern in the appearance of these three forms. We discuss the implications of these results for parasite transmission, and speculate about the mechanisms behind these changes.

DYNAMIC TRANSMISSION, HOST QUALITY, AND POPULATION STRUCTURE IN A MULTIHOST PARASITE OF BUMBLEBEES

The evolutionary ecology of multihost parasites is predicted to depend upon patterns of host quality and the dynamics of transmission networks. Depending upon the differences in host quality and transmission asymmetries, as well as the balance between intra‐ and interspecific transmission, the evolution of specialist or generalist strategies is predicted. Using a trypanosome parasite of bumblebees, we ask how host quality and transmission networks relate to parasite population structure across host species, and thus the potential for the evolution of specialist strains adapted to different host species. Host species differed in quality, with parasite growth varying across host species. Highly asymmetric transmission networks, together with differences in host quality, likely explain local population structure of the parasite across host species. However, parasite population structure across years was highly dynamic, with parasite populations varying significantly from one year to the next within individual species at a given site. This suggests that, while host quality and transmission may provide the opportunity for short‐term host specialization by the parasite, repeated bottlenecking of the parasite, in combination with its own reproductive biology, overrides these smaller scale effects, resulting in the evolution of a generalist parasite.

Honey bee and bumblebee trypanosomatids: specificity and potential for transmission

Abstract 1. Experimental studies of multihost parasite dynamics are scarce. Understanding the transmission dynamics of parasites in these systems is a key task in developing better models of parasite evolution and to make more accurate predictions of disease dynamics.

Males vs workers: testing the assumptions of the haploid susceptibility hypothesis in bumblebees

The haploid state of males in eusocial Hymenoptera—the ants, bees, and wasps—has been proposed as a driving force in the evolution of social behavior under the assumption that haploidy results in higher susceptibility to pathogens. In this study, we present the first test of the assumptions of the “haploid male susceptibility hypothesis”. We challenged males and workers of the bumblebee Bombus terrestris with its parasite Crithidia bombi but found no differences in either initial susceptibility or the intensity of infection between haploid males and diploid females. We reviewed observational studies on parasitism in haplodiploid insects and found that in 15 out of 26 cases, haploid males had lower parasite prevalence. However, the majority of available data related to nontransmissible parasites and thus any general statements about haploid susceptibility remain unclear. Using a simulation model, we studied how diverse genetic mechanisms could affect the values for resistance; results suggest that only a phenomenon that renders workers effectively haploid, e.g., imprinting, could explain our experimental results. A more likely explanation is that, in eusocial Hymenoptera with predominantly female populations, parasites may simply become more adapted to the more common female hosts and, thus, male haploid susceptibility may be hidden due to parasite adaptation. Our results do not support the idea that the haploid susceptibility hypothesis explains the origin or maintenance of social systems in the eusocial Hymenoptera.

Rapid induction of immune density-dependent prophylaxis in adult social insects

The innate immune system provides defence against parasites and pathogens. This defence comes at a cost, suggesting that immune function should exhibit plasticity in response to variation in environmental threats. Density-dependent prophylaxis (DDP) has been demonstrated mostly in phase-polyphenic insects, where larval group size determines levels of immune function in either adults or later larval instars. Social insects exhibit extreme sociality, but DDP has been suggested to be absent from these ecologically dominant taxa. Here we show that adult bumble-bee workers (Bombus terrestris) exhibit rapid plasticity in their immune function in response to social context. These results suggest that DDP does not depend upon larval conditions, and is likely to be a widespread and labile response to rapidly changing conditions in adult insect populations. This has obvious ramifications for experimental analysis of immune function in insects, and serious implications for our understanding of the epidemiology and impact of pathogens and parasites in spatially structured adult insect populations.

Proteasome-Related HslU and HslV Genes Typical of Eubacteria Are Widespread in Eukaryotes

Many eubacteria contain an ATP-dependent protease complex, which is built by multiple copies of the HslV and HslU proteins and is therefore called HslVU. HslU proteins are AAA + ATPases, while HslV proteins are proteases that show highly significant similarity to β subunits of proteasomes. Therefore, the HslVU complex has been envisaged as a precursor or ancestral type of proteasome. Here we show that species of most of the main eukaryotic lineages have HslU and HslV genes very similar to those found in proteobacteria. We have detected them in amoebozoa, plantae, chromoalveolata, rhizaria, and excavata species. Phylogenetic analyses suggest that these genes have been obtained by endosymbiosis from the proteobacterial ancestor that gave rise to eukaryotic mitochondria. The products encoded by these eukaryotic genes adopt, according to modeling based on the known crystal structures of prokaryotic HslU and HslV proteins, conformations that are compatible with their being fully active, suggesting that functional HslVU complexes may be present in many eukaryotic species.

The karyotypes of Gigantiops destructor (Fabricius) and other ants from French Guiana (Formicidae)

Abstract The aim of this study, which was conducted in French Guiana, was to characterize the karyotypes of nine ant species belonging to the genera Anochetus, Apterostigma, Cyphomyrmex, Camponotus, Gigantiops, Myrmicocrypta, Odontomachus and Pseudomyrmex, and to compare them with published data. We present the first descriptions of the karyotypes of Gigantiops destructor (Fabricius), an endemic Formicinae of the Amazonian region, which is the only living species in the tribe Gigantiopini, and of a species from the poorly-known cryptic genus Myrmicocrypta, which belongs to the Myrmicinae tribe Attini.

An efficient protocol for isolating melanised chaetothyrialean anamorphic fungi associated with plant-ants

Because of their ecological characteristics, slow growth rates and the presence of contaminants, Chaetothyriales fungi associated with structures built by tropical plant‐ants can be difficult to isolate with standard procedures. Here, we describe an easy‐to‐use protocol for obtaining pure cultures by using cotton as a first substrate. We have further found by means of fluorescent stains that nuclei concentrate either in young hyphae or in the tips of the hyphae.