Mechanisms of host exploitation by a microsporidian parasite
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Parasites exploit their hosts to enhance their growth and reproduction, yet the mechanisms underlying host manipulation remain understudied for many taxa. The microsporidian Vavraia culicis , a potential biological control agent for mosquitoes, serves as an excellent model to explore such mechanisms. In this study, we investigate how infection by V. culicis lines that vary in virulence alters resource dynamics within the mosquito host Anopheles gambiae . Using metallomics and quantification of protein, carbohydrate, and lipid content, we show that infection alters host resource concentrations in ways that depend on parasite virulence. More virulent parasites led to increased protein levels and greater energy demands, evidenced by higher carbohydrate reserves. Additionally, infection with V. culicis impacted host metal content, particularly zinc and manganese, used by V. culicis independently of its evolutionary background. Iron availability, a key nutrient for parasite growth, enhanced spore production, with selected parasite lines better able to exploit host iron than unselected. These findings provide insight into the mechanisms by which V. culicis manipulates host resources, shedding light on the role of host exploitation in parasite virulence and the potential use of microsporidia as biological control agents in vector biology.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".