Journal
JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL RHYTHMS
Volume 32, Issue 6, Pages 516-533Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC
DOI: 10.1177/0748730417718904
Keywords
fitness; adaptation; phenotypic plasticity; Plasmodium; transmission; life history; circadian rhythm; chronobiology; host-parasite interactions
Categories
Funding
- Royal Society
- Natural Environment Research Council
- Wellcome Trust
- Human Frontier Science Program
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Natural Environment Research Council [NE/K006029/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- NERC [NE/K006029/1] Funding Source: UKRI
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Biological rhythms are thought to have evolved to enable organisms to organize their activities according to the earth's predictable cycles, but quantifying the fitness advantages of rhythms is challenging and data revealing their costs and benefits are scarce. More difficult still is explaining why parasites that live exclusively within the bodies of other organisms have biological rhythms. Rhythms exist in the development and traits of parasites, in host immune responses, and in disease susceptibility. This raises the possibility that timing matters for how hosts and parasites interact and, consequently, for the severity and transmission of diseases. Here, we take an evolutionary ecological perspective to examine why parasites exhibit biological rhythms and how their rhythms are regulated. Specifically, we examine the adaptive significance (evolutionary costs and benefits) of rhythms for parasites and explore to what extent interactions between hosts and parasites can drive rhythms in infections. That parasites with altered rhythms can evade the effects of control interventions underscores the urgent need to understand how and why parasites exhibit biological rhythms. Thus, we contend that examining the roles of biological rhythms in disease offers innovative approaches to improve health and opens up a new arena for studying host-parasite (and host-parasite-vector) coevolution.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available