CONSERVATION OF PARASITES: Emphasis as Species

 Post #31

Conservation of Parasites: Emphasis as Species

Donald A. Windsor

Successful conservation of parasites is being handicapped because people (including many scientists) are not always differentiating between parasites as individuals and parasites as species.

Here is what must be emphasized. Species evolve. Individuals do not.

Parasites, as individuals, harm their hosts, by definition.

Parasites, as species, actually benefit their host species.

At the species level, parasites benefit their hosts by enabling them to survive. Parasites manage the ecosystems in which the hosts live. Without suitable ecosystems, the hosts would have to either go extinct or evolve into new species.

Without parasites, ecosystems would deteriorate into just a few monocultures of very aggressively invasive species. Biodiversity is due to parasites. 

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BIOBROKERS IN PARASITE-HOST INTERACTIONS

Post #18

BIOBROKERS IN PARASITE-HOST INTERACTIONS

Donald A. Windsor

I hypothesize that other species may be involved in parasite-host interactions.

In my previous post #17, I speculated that probiotics may be involved. But after further research revealed that the terms “probiotic” and “contrabiotic” are already in widespread use, so I will not use them.

Instead I will use the term “biobroker”. A broker facilitates transactions between sellers and buyers. A biobroker facilitates interactions between parasites and hosts. Biobrokers are probably microorganisms, but could be any other organisms, including other parasites.

Just as a financial transaction can occur without a broker, a parasite can infect/infest a host without a biobroker. However, some transactions are much smoother with a broker, because the broker may be able to work out a good deal for both participants.

Parasites must convince hosts to accept them. It seems that this convincing is usually of the “offer they cannot refuse” type of bullying. Parasites are usually host specific, showing that most other possible hosts are not convinced to accept the parasite and meet such overtures with rejection.

Evolution is all about evading extinction. Parasites may benefit their hosts, at the species level, by helping them survive. When a host species survives, its parasite species stand a better chance at surviving.

When a host species goes extinct, its parasite species will also go extinct, unless it is already in other species of hosts. A parasite species that has only one host species will survive its host species extinction only if it can find another species of host.

Here is where biobrokers can save the parasite species, by helping find new host species.

Parasites carrying the appropriate bacteria would be more successful infecting hosts compared to parasites without these bacteria. These bacteria would be probiotic for the parasites and contrabiotic for their hosts. Likewise, if the hosts were harboring bacteria that would thwart the parasites, those bacteria would be probiotic for the hosts and contrabiotic for the parasites. Biobrokers are both probiotic and contrabiotic and all gradations in between.

Right now, this hypothesis is pure speculation. I am looking for some real-world examples.

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