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Incorporating parasite systematics in comparative analyses of variation in spleen mass and testes sizes of rodents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2011

NICOLAS PONLET ,
KITIPONG CHAISIRI ,
JULIEN CLAUDE  and
SERGE MORAND
NICOLAS PONLET
Affiliation:
Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution, UMR 5554/226 UM2-CNRS-IRD, CC65, Université de Montpellier 2, F-34095 Montpellier, France
KITIPONG CHAISIRI
Affiliation:
Department of Helminthology, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand
JULIEN CLAUDE
Affiliation:
Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution, UMR 5554/226 UM2-CNRS-IRD, CC65, Université de Montpellier 2, F-34095 Montpellier, France
SERGE MORAND*
Affiliation:
Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution, UMR 5554/226 UM2-CNRS-IRD, CC65, Université de Montpellier 2, F-34095 Montpellier, France
*
*Corresponding author: E-mail: serge.morand@univ-montp2.fr
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Summary

Parasite diversity is hypothesized to act on host life-history traits through investment in immunity. In order to incorporate the diversity of the parasite community that an individual host or a host species may face, two indices can be used: Taxonomic Species Richness and Taxonomic Entropy, where the taxonomic information is incorporated with the taxonomic weight. We tested whether these indices correlate with several morphological traits potentially implicated in immune defence and in reproduction, using data on gastrointestinal helminths and their rodent hosts sampled in Southeast Asia. We found no relationship between parasite diversity indices and either spleen mass or testes size at the intraspecific level, i.e. at the level of individuals. At the interspecific level, we found no relationship between the parasite diversity indices and testes size. However, we found that female spleen mass is significantly influenced by the specific species richness of parasites, whereas male spleen mass is influenced by individual mean parasite diversity indices. We concluded that female spleen mass may have evolved in response to gastrointestinal helminth pressure acting at species levels, while in males, the individual spleen mass could be constrained by other factors, such as the blood storage function of the spleen.

Keywords

RodentsSoutheast Asiagastrointestinal helminthsparasite species richnesstaxonomic indextaxonomic weightcomparative analysisspleen masstestes size
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 138 , Special Issue 13: Systematics as a cornerstone of parasitology , November 2011 , pp. 1804 - 1814
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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