When Parasites Are Good for Health: Cestode Parasitism Increases Resistance to Arsenic in Brine Shrimps
Parasites and pollutants can both affect any living organism, and their interactions can be very important. To date, repeated studies have found that parasites and heavy metals or metalloids both have important negative effects on the health of animals, often in a synergistic manner. Here, we show f...
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Published in | PLoS pathogens Vol. 12; no. 3; p. e1005459 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
United States
Public Library of Science
01.03.2016
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Parasites and pollutants can both affect any living organism, and their interactions can be very important. To date, repeated studies have found that parasites and heavy metals or metalloids both have important negative effects on the health of animals, often in a synergistic manner. Here, we show for the first time that parasites can increase host resistance to metalloid arsenic, focusing on a clonal population of brine shrimp from the contaminated Odiel and Tinto estuary in SW Spain. We studied the effect of cestodes on the response of Artemia to arsenic (acute toxicity tests, 24h LC50) and found that infection consistently reduced mortality across a range of arsenic concentrations. An increase from 25°C to 29°C, simulating the change in mean temperature expected under climate change, increased arsenic toxicity, but the benefits of infection persisted. Infected individuals showed higher levels of catalase and glutathione reductase activity, antioxidant enzymes with a very important role in the protection against oxidative stress. Levels of TBARS were unaffected by parasites, suggesting that infection is not associated with oxidative damage. Moreover, infected Artemia had a higher number of carotenoid-rich lipid droplets which may also protect the host through the "survival of the fattest" principle and the antioxidant potential of carotenoids. This study illustrates the need to consider the multi-stress context (contaminants and temperature increase) in which host-parasite interactions occur. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Conceived and designed the experiments: MIS MMH MAT AJG TL. Performed the experiments: MIS MMH IP. Analyzed the data: MIS IP MMH AJG TL. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MIS MAT. Wrote the paper: MIS AJG. |
ISSN: | 1553-7374 1553-7366 1553-7374 |
DOI: | 10.1371/journal.ppat.1005459 |