Università Roma Tre

Cultural skills (Knowledge of:) The course offers the students a new perspective in the study of parasitology, by means of an ecological- evolutionary and comparative approach. In contrast to the traditional emphasis on pathogeniticy for non-human animal and human hosts, this course offers the student the opportunity to deepen the intimate and intricate nature of the association between host and parasite as an adaptive strategy of the parasitic life-style, giving emphasis to the impact of parasitism on the community structure or else to the role of a parasite in the trophic energy transfer in the community. Host is considered as a key element in the parasite environment and, as such, a selective pressure.
Methodological skills (Knowing how to perform:) acquire the critical thinking through readings and discussions, in order to correctly evaluate a research hypothesis, choose research tools and interpret results

SYLLABUS

1. Symbiotic interactions (phoresy, commensalism, exploitation, mutualism). Parasitism: definitions. Exploitation and trophic interactions: distinct adaptive strategies (predator/prey, parasitoid/prey, micropredators, parasite/host). Kinds of parasites: endo- and ecto-parasites, micro- and macro-parasites, obligate and facultative parasites, hyperparasites. Kinds of hosts: definitive and intermediate hosts, vectors, paratenic (transport) hosts, reservoire hosts. Mechanisms of invasion, evasion, and survival, transmission strategies. Protozoa and main Metazoan parasites: Platyhelminthes, Nematoda, Acanthocephala, Pentastomida, Arthropoda; parasitism in other metazoan
2. Evolutionary parasitology. Origins of parasitism and transition to parasitism from a free-living ancestral life-style; resistance against the host's defense mechanisms and evolution of host specificity; complex life-cycles shaped by historical events and selective pressures; hosts as part of parasite environment and as a source of selective pressure. Host manipulation by parasites (e.g. behavioral alterations in parasitized hosts). Development of resistance, tolerance and life-history parameters in host species. Host-parasite coevolution: an evolutionary arms race and the “Red-queen” hypothesis.

RECOMMENDED TEXTBOOKS:
- Parasitism: The Ecology and Evolution of Intimate Interactions, Claude Combes, 2004, University of Chicago Press (ISBN: 9780226114460)
- Evolutionary Ecology of Parasites, (Second Edition), Robert Poulin, 2006, Princeton University Press (ISBN: 9780691120850)
- Parasitism: The Diversity and Ecology of Animal Parasites, Albert O. Bush, Jacqueline Fernández, Gerald W. Esch, J. Richard Seed, 2001, Cambridge University Press (ISBN-13: 978-0521664479)
- Atlante di parassitologia, Frank Werner; Lieder Johannes, 2002, Franco Muzzio Editore (collana Scienze naturali), 3° edizione (ISBN: 978887413029)

All textbooks can be found in the library

The professor receives every day from 9.00 to 10.00 by appointment via email: monica.carosi@uniroma3.it

SYLLABUS (continued)

3. Evolutionary ecology of parasites. How complex life cycles have influenced the ecology of parasites at different hierarchical levels: individual, population, and community ecology. Parasitism and community structure in natural ecosystems. Parasites as ubiquitous components of ecosystems. Parasite’s influence on survival and reproduction of individual hosts, on the dynamics of host populations, and on the structure of entire communities. (A) parasites alter the flow of energy through a food web by converting host tissue into parasite tissue and (B) parasite-increased trophic transmission alters predator-prey dynamics by making infected prey easier to capture.
4. Cladogenesis of parasitic taxa and co-speciation of parasite and host species. Phylogeny and ecology of host and parasite: how phylogeny may provide insights into the evolution of host and parasite associations, and how ecological data may provide insights into phylogenetic relationships. Causes of diversity in parasite life-history traits: role of selective pressure from hosts and physical environments, and role of phylogenetic constraints
5. The biogeography of the host-parasite

See previous MODULE 1