Parasites & host manipulation

Natural history of parasites that change their hosts' behaviour or biology, from zombie-ant fungi to Wolbachia and viruses in our genome. Each topic lists only known properties from the cited papers; potential uses appear only when researchers proposed them.

• Parasites that change host behaviour
  7 studies · Some parasites change how their hosts behave in ways that help the parasite spread, from fungus-infected ants biting leaves before death to crickets that jump into water.
• Phages and endogenous retroviruses
  3 studies · Viruses hijack their hosts' cells to copy themselves. Bacteriophages do this to bacteria, and retroviruses that infected our ancestors left copies in the human genome, some now used by the body.
• Wolbachia and dengue control
  3 studies · Wolbachia are bacteria living inside many insects and other invertebrates that manipulate their hosts' reproduction. Mosquitoes carrying one strain are less able to spread dengue.

Related elsewhere on the site

• Phage therapy
• Natural mutation and evolution in the wild
• CRISPR gene editing in human patients