An extended epiphenotype for an extended phenotype in Toxoplasma gondii infected feral house mice

Parasitism of mice by Toxoplasma gondii reduces the host's aversion to cat odours, likely increasing predation and transmission of the parasite to its definitive host. This behavioural change suggests a parasitic manipulation where host behaviour becomes an extended phenotype of the parasite. Independently, epigenetic changes within an organism are now known to create behavioural change. The results described here provide an experimental connection between these disparate strands of extended phenotypes and the role of epigenetics in behavioural diversity. Using mice captured on Kangaroo Island in Australia, we demonstrate that Toxoplasma gondii infection leads to specific DNA hypomethylation events in the host brain. Previous laboratory studies have shown that these epigenetic changes underlie the central processing of cat odours. We posit that the concept of extended phenotype can be expanded to extended epiphenotype, thus linking parasite genes to host behaviour through epigenesis. This phenomenon has broad implications for inter-species relationships. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Automated summary

Parasitism of mice by Toxoplasma gondii reduces the host's aversion to cat odours, likely increasing predation and transmission of the parasite to its definitive host. This behavioural change suggests a parasitic manipulation where host behaviour becomes an extended phenotype of the parasite. The study also found that Toxoplasma gondii infection leads to specific DNA hypomethylation events in the host brain, which underlie the central processing of cat odours. These findings provide a connection between extended phenotypes, epigenetics, and behavioural diversity.