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SO ENDS two weekends on the parasite-host co-evolution. If evolution is the result of a broad and changing normal distribution curve driven by mutation and other factors, with selection at its edges for the best fit, then it gives credence to the axiom that a million monkeys with typewriters and Aeons of time could end up with a Shakespearean play. View in LinkedIn

CIRCADIAN CLOCK MIMICS. "Insect behaviour is controlled in a 24-h cycle by the circadian system, allowing the organism to respond to rhythmic environmental changes, related to for example light, temperature and food availability. Biernat et al. (2012) showed that a DNA repair protein (PHR2) encoded by the baculovirus Chrysodeixis chalcites nucleopolyhedrovirus can mimic the function of mammalian cryptochromes, essential regulators of the circadian clock." https://lnkd.in/e4DPgex View in LinkedIn

ALTERED NEUROTRANSMITTERS IN HOSTS. "Locomotion in invertebrates also involves the action of several monoamine molecules, including dopamine, serotonin and octopamine that may act as neurotransmitters or neurohormones. In several cases of behavioural manipulation, neurotransmitter levels were found to be altered." https://lnkd.in/e4DPgex View in LinkedIn

PARASITIC GENE INDUCTION IN HOST. "In the freshwater snail Lymniae stagnalis, increased expression of the npy gene is observed in the CNS upon parasitization by the trematode Trichobilharzia ocellata, a parasite that alters egg-laying behaviour of its host." https://lnkd.in/e4DPgex View in LinkedIn

HORMONAL INDUCTION. "The metabolic neuropeptide adipokinetic hormone (AKH) plays a role in starvation-induced locomotion as was first described in D. melanogaster. Upon starvation, wild-type flies display increased locomotion behaviour prior to death, while AKH-deficient flies lack this increase in locomotion and are more resistant to starvation-induced death." https://lnkd.in/e4DPgex View in LinkedIn

DOWNSTREAM CONSEQUENCES. "Neuropeptides and hormones (e.g. neuropeptide Y (NPY), tachykinin-related peptides (TKRPs), pigment-dispersing factor (PDF) and adipokinetic hormone (AKH) and neurotransmitters (e.g. octopamine, dopamine, serotonin) are possibly affected downstream of PKG and/or TO, leading to changes in host behaviour." https://lnkd.in/e4DPgex View in LinkedIn

TARGETED PATHWAY MANIPULATION. "A parasitic protein (e.g. protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) in the case of baculoviruses manipulating caterpillar behaviour may directly or indirectly affect the host protein kinase G (PKG) pathway and/or the circadian-clock pathway, eventually leading to behavioural changes." https://lnkd.in/e4DPgex View in LinkedIn

PARASITES MIMIC PROTEINS. "Gordian worms: revealing the presence of parasite proteins that mimicked host proteins belonging to the Wnt family, parasite proteins involved in neurotransmitter release and a host protein involved in geotactic behaviour." https://lnkd.in/e4DPgex View in LinkedIn

"CONSERVED SEQUENCES in nature are maintained despite evolution, presumably because of a critical function that they may serve to the organism." https://lnkd.in/eZmb7gi View in LinkedIn

SUCCESS STRATEGY #2: "segregation distorters that destroy competing chromosomes during meiosis." https://lnkd.in/ewXxsGD View in LinkedIn