Let's go swimming: mermithid-infected earwigs exhibit positive hydrotaxis

Herbison, Ryan; Evans, Steven; Doherty, Jean‐François; Poulin, Robert

doi:10.1017/s0031182019001045

Cited by 12 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Evidence for both convergent evolution and ontogenetic changes in host physiology coinciding with the timing of host manipulation is rare in neuroparasitology [16]. However, mermithid nematodes (phylum Nematoda) that, like hairworms, induce hydrophilic behaviour in their hosts are perfect models to generate both these forms of evidence [31][32][33][34]. From an ontogenetic perspective, both hairworms and mermithids are easy to study (relative to other parasites) as their length and external appearance are good indicators of maturity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A molecular war: convergent and ontogenetic evidence for adaptive host manipulation in related parasites infecting divergent hosts

et al. 2019

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Mermithids (phylum Nematoda) and hairworms (phylum Nematomorpha) somehow drive their arthropod hosts into water, which is essential for the worms' survival after egression. The mechanisms behind this behavioural change have been investigated in hairworms, but not in mermithids. Establishing a similar mechanistic basis for host behavioural change between these two distantly related parasitic groups would provide strong convergent evidence for adaptive manipulation and insight into how these parasites modify and/or create behaviour. Here, we search for this convergence, and also contrast changes in physiology between hosts infected with immature and mature mermithids to provide the first ontogenetic evidence for adaptive manipulation by disentangling host response and pathology from the parasite's apparent manipulative effects. We used SWATH-mass spectrometry on brains of Forficula auricularia (earwig) and Bellorchestia quoyana (sandhopper), infected with the mermithids Mermis nigrescens and Thaumamermis zealandica , respectively, at both immature and mature stages of infection, to quantify proteomic changes resulting from mermithid infection. Across both hosts (and hairworm-infected hosts, from earlier studies), the general function of dysregulated proteins was conserved. Proteins involved in energy generation/mobilization were dysregulated, corroborating reports of erratic/hyperactive behaviour in infected hosts. Dysregulated proteins involved in axon/dendrite and synapse modulation were also common to all hosts, suggesting neuronal manipulation is involved in inducing positive hydrotaxis. Furthermore, downregulation of CamKII and associated proteins suggest manipulation of memory also contributes to the behavioural shift.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A molecular war: convergent and ontogenetic evidence for adaptive host manipulation in related parasites infecting divergent hosts

et al. 2019

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“…Furthermore, several mermithids manipulate their host's behaviour for their own benefit (Herbison et al 2019). Adult mermithids are free-living; after completion of their development within an arthropod host, they must emerge from the host to mate and lay eggs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genome assembly and annotation of the mermithid nematodeMermis nigrescens

Bhattarai

Poulin

Gemmell

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Genetic studies of nematodes have been dominated by Caenorhabditis elegans as a model species. Lack of genomic resources has been a limiting factor for expansion of genetic research to other groups of nematodes. Here, we report a draft genome assembly of a mermithid nematode, Mermis nigrescens. Mermithidae are insect parasitic nematodes with hosts including a wide range of terrestrial arthropods. We sequenced, assembled, and annotated the whole genome of M. nigrescens using nanopore long-reads and 10X chromium link-reads. The assembly is 524 Mb in size consisting of 867 scaffolds. The N50 value is 2.42 Mb, and half of the assembly is in the 30 longest scaffolds. The assembly BUSCO score from the eukaryotic database (eukaryota_odb10) indicates that the genome is 86.7% complete and 5.1% partial. The genome has a high level of heterozygosity (6.6%) with a repeat content of 78.7%. mRNA-seq reads from different sized nematodes (≤2 cm, 3.5-7 cm, and >7 cm body length) representing different developmental stages were also generated and used for the genome annotation. Using ab initio and evidence-based gene model predictions, 12,313 protein-coding genes and 24,186 mRNAs were annotated. These genomic resources will help researchers investigate the various aspects of the biology and host-parasite interactions of mermithid nematodes.

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“…Like the right-handedness in humans, 90% of males of giant earwig Labidura riparia show a preference for the right penis for copulation, providing insights into the evolutionary origin of lateralization ( Kamimura et al 2021 ). Similarly, they are an excellent lab model to study extended phenotypes as they exhibit strange suicidal water-seeking behavior during the late stages of infection by mermithid nematodes ( Herbison et al 2019 ). However, their use as a genetic model has been severely limited by the lack of a reference genome.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genome assembly and annotation of the European earwig Forficula auricularia (subspecies B)

Bhattarai

Katuwal

Poulin

et al. 2022

G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics

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The European earwig Forficula auricularia is an important model for studies of maternal care, sexual selection, sociality and host-parasite interactions. However, detailed genetic investigations of this species are hindered by a lack of genomic resources. Here we present a high-quality hybrid genome assembly for F. auricularia using Nanopore long-reads and 10x linked-reads. The final assembly is 1.06 Gb in length with 31.03% GC content. It consists of 919 scaffolds with an N50 of 12.55 Mb. Half of the genome is present in only 20 scaffolds. Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs scores are ∼90% from three sets of single-copy orthologs (eukaryotic, insect, and arthropod). The total repeat elements in the genome are 64.62%. The MAKER2 pipeline annotated 12,876 protein-coding genes and 21,031 mRNAs. Phylogenetic analysis revealed the assembled genome as that of Species B, one of the two known genetic subspecies of F. auricularia. The genome assembly, annotation, and associated resources will be of high value to a large and diverse group of researchers working on Dermapterans.

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Let's go swimming: mermithid-infected earwigs exhibit positive hydrotaxis

Cited by 12 publications

References 21 publications

A molecular war: convergent and ontogenetic evidence for adaptive host manipulation in related parasites infecting divergent hosts

A molecular war: convergent and ontogenetic evidence for adaptive host manipulation in related parasites infecting divergent hosts

Genome assembly and annotation of the mermithid nematodeMermis nigrescens

Genome assembly and annotation of the European earwig Forficula auricularia (subspecies B)

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