Parasitic behavioural manipulation reflected as an extended epigenotype in a naturalistic population

Historically, the behavioural manipulation hypothesis is relentlessly challenged by inconsistent phenotypic profiles trying to coalesce molecules to behaviours in the laboratory. Yet, exploring the phenomena in naturalistic settings exposes the study to myriad confounders and stochasticity, making e...

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Main Author: Ngo, Philip Yun Xuan
Other Authors: Ajai Vyas
Format: Thesis-Master by Research
Language:English
Published: Nanyang Technological University 2022
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/159559
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1595592023-02-28T18:44:30Z Parasitic behavioural manipulation reflected as an extended epigenotype in a naturalistic population Ngo, Philip Yun Xuan Ajai Vyas School of Biological Sciences University of Adelaide AVYAS@ntu.edu.sg Science::Biological sciences::Human anatomy and physiology::Neurobiology Science::Biological sciences::Evolution Historically, the behavioural manipulation hypothesis is relentlessly challenged by inconsistent phenotypic profiles trying to coalesce molecules to behaviours in the laboratory. Yet, exploring the phenomena in naturalistic settings exposes the study to myriad confounders and stochasticity, making empirical evidence difficult to obtain. Herein, these challenges are addressed from a serendipitous intervention at Kangaroo Island accompanied by a longitudinal study design, allowing the dissection of the behavioural phenomenon, ‘fatal attraction’, observed in rodents infected with Toxoplasma gondii. Comparable to laboratory findings, parasitic infection in wild mice coincides with significant epigenetic changes within the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus and the posterodorsal medial amygdala. The latter of which, is previously demonstrated to sufficiently reproduce the loss of aversion towards predators in laboratory rodents. We posit that Toxoplasma gondii remarkably alters the epigenotype of mice in the natural wild environment, with the extension of this epigenotype steering the loss of aversion towards predatory felids, augmenting parasitic transmission. We further explore the implications of infection on other facets of mice physiology derived from Kangaroo Island and deduce plausible connotations. The ‘extended epigenotype’ may provide a much-needed contemporary perspective on future parasite-host associations and broad, inter-intraspecies relationships. Master of Science 2022-06-27T05:38:16Z 2022-06-27T05:38:16Z 2021 Thesis-Master by Research Ngo, P. Y. X. (2021). Parasitic behavioural manipulation reflected as an extended epigenotype in a naturalistic population. Master's thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/159559 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/159559 en This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). application/pdf Nanyang Technological University
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Science::Biological sciences::Human anatomy and physiology::Neurobiology
Science::Biological sciences::Evolution
spellingShingle Science::Biological sciences::Human anatomy and physiology::Neurobiology
Science::Biological sciences::Evolution
Ngo, Philip Yun Xuan
Parasitic behavioural manipulation reflected as an extended epigenotype in a naturalistic population
description Historically, the behavioural manipulation hypothesis is relentlessly challenged by inconsistent phenotypic profiles trying to coalesce molecules to behaviours in the laboratory. Yet, exploring the phenomena in naturalistic settings exposes the study to myriad confounders and stochasticity, making empirical evidence difficult to obtain. Herein, these challenges are addressed from a serendipitous intervention at Kangaroo Island accompanied by a longitudinal study design, allowing the dissection of the behavioural phenomenon, ‘fatal attraction’, observed in rodents infected with Toxoplasma gondii. Comparable to laboratory findings, parasitic infection in wild mice coincides with significant epigenetic changes within the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus and the posterodorsal medial amygdala. The latter of which, is previously demonstrated to sufficiently reproduce the loss of aversion towards predators in laboratory rodents. We posit that Toxoplasma gondii remarkably alters the epigenotype of mice in the natural wild environment, with the extension of this epigenotype steering the loss of aversion towards predatory felids, augmenting parasitic transmission. We further explore the implications of infection on other facets of mice physiology derived from Kangaroo Island and deduce plausible connotations. The ‘extended epigenotype’ may provide a much-needed contemporary perspective on future parasite-host associations and broad, inter-intraspecies relationships.
author2 Ajai Vyas
author_facet Ajai Vyas
Ngo, Philip Yun Xuan
format Thesis-Master by Research
author Ngo, Philip Yun Xuan
author_sort Ngo, Philip Yun Xuan
title Parasitic behavioural manipulation reflected as an extended epigenotype in a naturalistic population
title_short Parasitic behavioural manipulation reflected as an extended epigenotype in a naturalistic population
title_full Parasitic behavioural manipulation reflected as an extended epigenotype in a naturalistic population
title_fullStr Parasitic behavioural manipulation reflected as an extended epigenotype in a naturalistic population
title_full_unstemmed Parasitic behavioural manipulation reflected as an extended epigenotype in a naturalistic population
title_sort parasitic behavioural manipulation reflected as an extended epigenotype in a naturalistic population
publisher Nanyang Technological University
publishDate 2022
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/159559
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