Logan A, Ruiz-González M X, Brown M J F
Department of Zoology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Parasitology. 2005 Jun;130(Pt 6):637-42. doi: 10.1017/s0031182005007304.
Host nutrition plays an important role in determining the development and success of parasitic infections. While studies of vertebrate hosts are accumulating, little is known about how host nutrition affects parasites of invertebrate hosts. Crithidia bombi is a gut trypanosome parasite of the bumble bee, Bombus terrestris and here we use it as a model system to determine the impact of host nutrition on the population dynamics and development of micro-parasites in invertebrates. Pollen-starved bees supported significantly smaller populations of the parasite. In pollen-fed bees the parasite showed a temporal pattern in development, with promastigote transmission stages appearing at the start of the infection and gradually being replaced by choanomastigote and amastigote forms. In pollen-starved bees this developmental process was disrupted, and there was no pattern in the appearance of these three forms. We discuss the implications of these results for parasite transmission, and speculate about the mechanisms behind these changes.
宿主营养在决定寄生虫感染的发展和结果方面起着重要作用。虽然关于脊椎动物宿主的研究不断积累，但对于宿主营养如何影响无脊椎动物宿主的寄生虫却知之甚少。克氏锥虫是熊蜂（Bombus terrestris）肠道内的一种锥虫寄生虫，在这里我们将其作为一个模型系统，以确定宿主营养对无脊椎动物体内微寄生虫种群动态和发育的影响。花粉缺乏的蜜蜂体内寄生虫数量明显较少。在喂食花粉的蜜蜂中，寄生虫呈现出一种发育的时间模式，前鞭毛体传播阶段在感染开始时出现，并逐渐被漏斗鞭毛体和无鞭毛体形式取代。在花粉缺乏的蜜蜂中，这种发育过程受到干扰，这三种形式的出现没有规律。我们讨论了这些结果对寄生虫传播的影响，并推测了这些变化背后的机制。
