Tim David
Parasitism is an extremely effective life strategy and a driving factor in genetic diversity that has developed several times. Infections of unintended hosts provide a chance for lateral host changes and parasite niche expansion. However, if directed toward creatures that are phylogenetically far from the parasite's native host, such as humans, it may create a deadend environment in which the parasite fails to grow or is destroyed by host immunity. One example is worms of the Anisakidae family, genus Anisakis, which have lost the capacity to replicate in terrestrial hosts but may live in humans for a brief period, producing anisakiasis. To investigate Anisakis' ability to infect an evolutionary distant host, we performed transcriptome profiling on larvae successfully migrating through the rat, a classic model of accidental human infection, and compared it to that of larvae infecting an evolutionary familiar, paratenic host (fish).
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