Thermal Ecology of a Malarial Parasite and its Insect Vector: Consequences for the Parasite's Transmission Success

10.2307/5799 ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 64 (5) ◽  
pp. 553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto F. Fialho ◽  
Jos J. Schall
Keyword(s):  
Malarial Parasite ◽  
Thermal Ecology ◽  
Insect Vector ◽  
Transmission Success

scholarly journals Virulence and transmission success of the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum

1999 ◽  
Vol 96 (8) ◽  
pp. 4563-4568 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. Hayward ◽  
B. Tiwari ◽  
K. P. Piper ◽  
D. I. Baruch ◽  
K. P. Day
Keyword(s):  
Plasmodium Falciparum ◽  
Malarial Parasite ◽  
Transmission Success ◽  
Parasite Plasmodium ◽  
Parasite Plasmodium Falciparum

A scanning electron microscopic study of the eggs of Culicoides variipennis (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae)

1987 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 884-885 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Nunamaker ◽  
C. E. Nunamaker ◽  
B. C. Wick
Keyword(s):  
Distinct Species ◽  
Hemorrhagic Disease ◽  
Insect Vector ◽  
Electron Microscopic ◽  
Important Species ◽  
Scanning Electron Microscopic Study ◽  
Laboratory Colony ◽  
Culicoides Variipennis ◽  
Morphological Differences ◽  
Scanning Electron

Culicoides variipennis (Coquillett) is probably the most economically important species of biting midge in the U.S. due to its involvement in the transmission of bluetongue (BT) disease of sheep, cattle and ruminant wildlife, and epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) of deer. Proposals have been made to recognize the eastern and western populations of this insect vector as distinct species. Others recommend use of the term “variipennis complex” until such time that the necessary biosystematic studies have been made to determine the genetic nature and/or minute morphological differences within the population structure over the entire geographic range of the species. Increasingly, students of ootaxonomy are relying on scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to assess chorionic features. This study was undertaken to provide comparative chorionic data for the C. variipennis complex.Culicoides variipennis eggs were collected from a laboratory colony maintained in Laramie, Wyoming.

Iron and Malaria: Absorption, Efficacy and Safety

2010 ◽  
Vol 80 (45) ◽  
pp. 279-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Hurrell
Keyword(s):  
Pathogenic Bacteria ◽  
Intestinal Barrier ◽  
Systemic Circulation ◽  
Malarial Parasite ◽  
Asymptomatic Malaria ◽  
Iron Supplements ◽  
Fortified Food ◽  
Care Giving ◽  
Single Meal ◽  
Women And Children

Febrile malaria and asymptomatic malaria parasitemia substantially decrease iron absorption in single-meal, stable isotope studies in women and children, but to date there is no evidence of decreased efficacy of iron-fortified foods in malaria-endemic regions. Without inadequate malarial surveillance or health care, giving iron supplements to children in areas of high transmission could increase morbidity and mortality. The most likely explanation is the appearance of non-transferrin-bound iron (NTBI) in the plasma. NTBI forms when the rate of iron influx into the plasma exceeds the rate of iron binding to transferrin. Two studies in women have reported substantially increased NTBI with the ingestion of iron supplements. Our studies confirm this, but found no significant increase in NTBI on consumption of iron-fortified food. It seems likely that the malarial parasite in hepatocytes can utilize NTBI, but it cannot do so in infected erythrocytes. NTBI however may increase the sequestration of parasite-infected erythrocytes in capillaries. Bacteremia is common in children with severe malaria and sequestration in villi capillaries could lead to a breaching of the intestinal barrier, allowing the passage of pathogenic bacteria into the systemic circulation. This is especially important as frequent high iron doses increase the number of pathogens in the intestine at the expense of the barrier bacteria.

The Metabolic Theory of Ecology

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Metabolic Rate ◽  
Resting Metabolic Rate ◽  
Effect Of Temperature ◽  
Thermal Ecology ◽  
Model Data ◽  
Metabolic Theory ◽  
Physical Explanation ◽  
Boltzmann Factor ◽  
Scaling Exponents ◽  
Metabolic Theory Of Ecology

The model of West, Brown & Enquist (WBE) is built on the assumption that the metabolic rate of cells is determined by the architecture of the vascular network that supplies them with oxygen and nutrients. For a fractal-like network, and assuming that evolution has minimised cardiovascular costs, the WBE model predicts that s=metabolism should scale with mass with an exponent, b, of 0.75 at infinite size, and ~ 0.8 at realistic larger sizes. Scaling exponents ~ 0.75 for standard or resting metabolic rate are observed widely, but far from universally, including in some invertebrates with cardiovascular systems very different from that assumed in the WBE model. Data for field metabolic rate in vertebrates typically exhibit b ~ 0.8, which matches the WBE prediction. Addition of a simple Boltzmann factor to capture the effects of body temperature on metabolic rate yields the central equation of the Metabolic Theory of Ecology (MTE). The MTE has become an important strand in ecology, and the WBE model is the most widely accepted physical explanation for the scaling of metabolic rate with body mass. Capturing the effect of temperature through a Boltzmann factor is a useful statistical description but too simple to qualify as a complete physical theory of thermal ecology.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Physical Mechanism ◽  
Thermal Ecology ◽  
Evolutionary Processes ◽  
Physical Mechanisms ◽  
The Subject

This introduces the subject, laying out the organisation of the book and emphasising the importance of both simple underlying physical mechanisms and evolutionary variability to thermal ecology. It distinguishes physical mechanism from statistical description, and the importance of evolutionary processes in comparisons across species.

scholarly journals Metabolic reprogramming during the Trypanosoma brucei life cycle

F1000Research ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 683 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry K. Smith ◽  
Frédéric Bringaud ◽  
Derek P. Nolan ◽  
Luisa M. Figueiredo
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Trypanosoma Brucei ◽  
Model Organism ◽  
Protozoan Parasite ◽  
Tsetse Fly ◽  
Metabolic Reprogramming ◽  
Mammalian Host ◽  
Insect Vector ◽  
Environmental Signals ◽  
Cellular Metabolic Activity

Cellular metabolic activity is a highly complex, dynamic, regulated process that is influenced by numerous factors, including extracellular environmental signals, nutrient availability and the physiological and developmental status of the cell. The causative agent of sleeping sickness, Trypanosoma brucei, is an exclusively extracellular protozoan parasite that encounters very different extracellular environments during its life cycle within the mammalian host and tsetse fly insect vector. In order to meet these challenges, there are significant alterations in the major energetic and metabolic pathways of these highly adaptable parasites. This review highlights some of these metabolic changes in this early divergent eukaryotic model organism.

scholarly journals Altered Erythrocytes and a Leaky Block in B-Cell Development in CD24/HSA-Deficient Mice

Blood ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 89 (3) ◽  
pp. 1058-1067 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.J. Nielsen ◽  
B. Lorenz ◽  
A.M. Müller ◽  
R.H. Wenger ◽  
F. Brombacher ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Lymphocytes ◽  
B Cell ◽  
Embryonic Stem ◽  
Cell Development ◽  
B Cell Development ◽  
Surface Glycoprotein ◽  
Malarial Parasite ◽  
Heat Stable Antigen ◽  
Deficient Mice

Abstract The heat stable antigen (HSA, or murine CD24) is a glycosyl phosphatidylinositol-linked surface glycoprotein expressed on immature cells of most, if not all, major hematopoietic lineages, as well as in developing neural and epithelial cells. It has been widely used to stage the maturation of B and T lymphocytes because it is strongly induced and then repressed again during their maturation. Terminally differentiated lymphocytes, as well as most myeloid lineages, are negative for HSA. Erythrocytes are an exception in that they maintain high levels of HSA expression. HSA on naive B cells has been shown to mediate cell-cell adhesion, while HSA on antigen-presenting cells has been shown to mediate a costimulatory signal important for activating T lymphocytes during an immune response. Here, we characterize mice that lack a functional HSA gene, constructed by homologous recombination in embryonic stem cells. While T-cell and myeloid development appears normal, these mice show a leaky block in B-cell development with a reduction in late pre-B and immature B-cell populations in the bone marrow. Nevertheless, peripheral B-cell numbers are normal and no impairment of immune function could be detected in these mice in a variety of immunization and infection models. We also observed that erythrocytes are altered in HSA-deficient mice. They show a higher tendency to aggregate and are more susceptible to hypotonic lysis in vitro. In vivo, the mean half-life of HSA-deficient erythrocytes was reduced. When infected with the malarial parasite Plasmodium chabaudi chabaudi, the levels of parasite-bearing erythrocytes in HSA-deficient mice were also significantly elevated, but the mice were able to clear the infection with kinetics similar to wild-type mice and were immune to a second challenge. Thus, apart from alterations in erythrocytes and a mild block in B-cell development, the regulated expression of HSA appears to be dispensable for the maturation and functioning of those cell lineages that normally express it.

scholarly journals Sequential production of gametes during meiosis in trypanosomes

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lori Peacock ◽  
Chris Kay ◽  
Chloe Farren ◽  
Mick Bailey ◽  
Mark Carrington ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Salivary Glands ◽  
Nuclear Dna ◽  
Nuclear Dna Content ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Tsetse Fly ◽  
Binucleate Cell ◽  
Insect Vector ◽  
Content Ratio ◽  
Different Cell Types ◽  
Meiosis I

AbstractMeiosis is a core feature of eukaryotes that occurs in all major groups, including the early diverging excavates. In this group, meiosis and production of haploid gametes have been described in the pathogenic protist, Trypanosoma brucei, and mating occurs in the salivary glands of the insect vector, the tsetse fly. Here, we searched for intermediate meiotic stages among trypanosomes from tsetse salivary glands. Many different cell types were recovered, including trypanosomes in Meiosis I and gametes. Significantly, we found trypanosomes containing three nuclei with a 1:2:1 ratio of DNA contents. Some of these cells were undergoing cytokinesis, yielding a mononucleate gamete and a binucleate cell with a nuclear DNA content ratio of 1:2. This cell subsequently produced three more gametes in two further rounds of division. Expression of the cell fusion protein HAP2 (GCS1) was not confined to gametes, but also extended to meiotic intermediates. We propose a model whereby the two nuclei resulting from Meiosis I undergo asynchronous Meiosis II divisions with sequential production of haploid gametes.

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