'Re-Wilding' an Animal Model With Microbiota Shifts Immunity and Stress Gene Expression During Infection.

The frequency of emerging disease is growing with ongoing human activity facilitating new host-pathogen interactions. Novel infection outcomes can also be shaped by the host microbiota. Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes experimentally colonised by a wild microbiota community and infected by the widespread animal pathogen, Staphylococcus aureus, have been shown to suffer higher mortality than those infected by the pathogen alone.

Using machine learning to predict protein-protein interactions between a zombie ant fungus and its carpenter ant host.

Parasitic fungi produce proteins that modulate virulence, alter host physiology, and trigger host responses. These proteins, classified as a type of "effector," often act via protein-protein interactions (PPIs). The fungal parasite Ophiocordyceps camponoti-floridani (zombie ant fungus) manipulates Camponotus floridanus (carpenter ant) behavior to promote transmission.

Genetic Underpinnings of Host Manipulation by as Revealed by Comparative Transcriptomics.

Ant-infecting fungi are globally distributed, host manipulating, specialist parasites that drive aberrant behaviors in infected ants, at a lethal cost to the host. An apparent increase in activity and wandering behaviors precedes a final summiting and biting behavior onto vegetation, which positions the manipulated ant in a site beneficial for fungal growth and transmission. We investigated the genetic underpinnings of host manipulation by: ( producing a high-quality hybrid assembly and annotation of the genome, () conducting laboratory infections coupled with RNAseq of and its host, , and () comparing these data to RNAseq data of and as a powerful method to identify gene expression patterns that suggest shared behavioral manipulation mechanisms across -ant species interactions.

Daily rhythms and enrichment patterns in the transcriptome of the behavior-manipulating parasite Ophiocordyceps kimflemingiae.

Various parasite-host interactions that involve adaptive manipulation of host behavior display time-of-day synchronization of certain events. One example is the manipulated biting behavior observed in Carpenter ants infected with Ophiocordyceps unilateralis sensu lato. We hypothesized that biological clocks play an important role in this and other parasite-host interactions.