Parasites are just the strings: Microbes as the real puppet masters in phenotypic manipulations of parasitized animals

This blog post is provided by Priscila Salloum, Fátima Jorge and Robert Poulin and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the paper “Inter-individual variation in parasite manipulation of host phenotype: a role for parasite microbiomes?“, which was recently published in the Journal of Animal Ecology. They explore how differences in the microbiome of parasites might impact the way that those parasites can manipulate their hosts’ behaviour. Many parasites … Continue reading Parasites are just the strings: Microbes as the real puppet masters in phenotypic manipulations of parasitized animals

An underwater unravelling of the immune landscape

This blog post is provided by Christyn Bailey and Helmut Segner and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the paper ‘It’s a hard knock life for some: heterogeneity in infection life-history of salmonids influences parasite disease outcomes‘, which was recently published in the Journal of Animal Ecology. You can also listen to the blog post on Soundcloud. The role of immunity on a population-level has garnered broad … Continue reading An underwater unravelling of the immune landscape