Project summary
Focus: Examining the evolutionary history of myxozoans and the colonial hosts they parasitise.
Funding: NERC and the European Commission.
Bryozoan endoparasite evolution
Bryozoans offer endoparasites a potentially unlimited, genetically homogenous resource to exploit. In this image, Buddenbrockia worms are moving around inside bryozoan body cavities.
We are examining how myxozoans have evolved to parasitise colonial hosts by considering the evolutionary history of the exploiter and the exploited.
Host-parasite interactions are usually understood by looking at traditional systems, such as the malaria parasite infecting animal hosts. But colonial animals such as bryozoans present a different model.
Bryozoans offer endoparasites a potentially unlimited, genetically homogenous resource to exploit.
We are researching:
- morphological simplification of myxozoans, such as from active worms to sacs and plasmodia
- cycling between developmental stages depending on host condition
- local adaptation between parasites and hosts
- the origins of endoparasitism
Principal Investigator
Museum staff
Professor Beth Okamura
Dr Hanna Hartikainen
Dr Alexander Gruhl
Collaborators
Dr Jason Holland, University of Aberdeen
Professor Chris Secombes, University of Aberdeen