Publicaties
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Specificity, adaptation and parallel host-parasite evolution in acarines, especially Myobiidae, with a tentative explanation for the regressive evolution caused by the immunological reactions of the host Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde
Long-term dynamics in local host-parasite interactions linked to regional population trends Universiteit Gent
Explosive networking: The role of adaptive host radiations and ecological opportunity in a species-rich host-parasite assembly KU Leuven
Many species-rich ecological communities emerge from adaptive radiation events. Yet the effects of adaptive radiation on community assembly remain poorly understood. Here, we explore the well-documented radiations of African cichlid fishes and their interactions with the flatworm gill parasites Cichlidogyrus spp., including 10,529 reported infections and 477 different host-parasite combinations collected through a survey of peer-reviewed ...
A three-way perspective of stoichiometric changes on host–parasite interactions KU Leuven
Changes in environmental nutrients play a crucial role in driving disease dynamics, but global patterns in nutrient-driven changes in disease are difficult to predict. In this paper we use ecological stoichiometry as a framework to review host–parasite interactions under changing nutrient ratios, focusing on three pathways: (i) altered host resistance and parasite virulence through host stoichiometry (ii) changed encounter or contact rates at ...
Damped long-term host–parasite Red Queen coevolutionary dynamics: a reflection of dilution effects ? KU Leuven Universiteit Gent
An increase in biological diversity leads to a greater stability of ecosystem properties. For host-parasite interactions, this is illustrated by the ‘dilution effect’: a negative correlation between host biodiversity and disease risk. We show that a similar mechanism might stabilize host-parasite dynamics at a lower level of diversity, i.e. at the level of genetic diversity within host species. A long-term time shift experiment, based on a ...
Aligning microtomography analysis with traditional anatomy for a 3D understanding of the host-parasite interface - Phoradendron spp. Case study Vrije Universiteit Brussel
The complex endophytic structure formed by parasitic plant species often represents a challenge in the study of the host-parasite interface. Even with the large amounts of anatomical slides, a three-dimensional comprehension of the structure may still be difficult to obtain. In the present study we applied the High Resolution X-ray Computed Tomography (HRXCT) analysis along with usual plant anatomy techniques in order to compare the ...
Testing for local adaptation in the Gasterosteus–Gyrodactylus host–parasite system KU Leuven Universiteit Gent
Background: Parasites are often assumed to be locally adapted to their hosts, while a growing body of literature shows this is not a fixed rule. We used the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) and its host-specific parasitic flatworm Gyrodactylus gasterostei of the Belgian lowland–upland system to test for local adaptation and assess whether findings are consistent over different life stages. Question: Is the ...
Advances in the Immunology of the Host–Parasite Interactions in African Trypanosomosis, including Single-Cell Transcriptomics Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Trypanosomes are single-celled extracellular parasites that infect mammals, including humans and livestock, causing global public health concerns and economic losses. These parasites cycle between insect vectors, such as tsetse flies and vertebrate hosts, undergoing morphological, cellular, and biochemical changes. They have remarkable immune evasion mechanisms to escape the host’s innate and adaptive immune responses, such as surface coat ...
Contrasting Host-Parasite Population Structure: Morphology and Mitogenomics of a Parasitic Flatworm on Pelagic Deepwater Cichlid Fishes from Lake Tanganyika KU Leuven Universiteit Hasselt
Little phylogeographic structure is presumed for highly mobile species in pelagic zones. Lake Tanganyika is a unique ecosystem with a speciose and largely endemic fauna famous for its remarkable evolutionary history. In bathybatine cichlid fishes, the pattern of lake-wide population differentiation differs among species. We assessed the congruence between the phylogeographic structure of bathybatine cichlids and their parasitic flatworm ...