Toxoplasma gondii reduces innate fear to predator urine by altering the brain of its rodent host
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii is known to dampen fear responses to cat urine in infected rodent hosts. Such manipulation is likely advantageous to the parasite in the wild, possibly increasing predation by the definitive host of Toxoplasma, the cat. Here we report that in infected rats, Toxoplasma modifies limbic structures responsive to appetitive, sexual stimuli, converting ensembles of neural activity in regions of sexual attraction to respond to cat urine. Understanding how Toxoplasma is inspiring these behavioral changes in the host brain requires knowledge of the precise anatomical location of the parasite in the host brain. For this reason, we used a genetically-engineered Toxoplasma in a mouse that allowed us to track, at single-neuron resolution, the location of the parasite and the location of any neuron it invaded or tried to invade ("Toxoplasma-interacted neurons"). We report high individual variation in loss-of-aversion to cat urine in infected mice and that numbers of Toxoplasma-interacted neurons in the total brain did not explain this variation. However, variation in number of Toxoplasma-interacted neurons in the corpus striatum predicted response to the dopamine D2 receptor antagonist haloperidol, providing evidence that Toxoplasma is interacting with dopamine in the infected host brain.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2014 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | House, Patrick Kendall |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Neuroscience. |
| Primary advisor | Sapolsky, Robert M |
| Thesis advisor | Sapolsky, Robert M |
| Thesis advisor | Boothroyd, John C |
| Thesis advisor | Fernald, Russell D |
| Thesis advisor | Hestrin, Shaul |
| Advisor | Boothroyd, John C |
| Advisor | Fernald, Russell D |
| Advisor | Hestrin, Shaul |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Patrick Kendall House. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Neuroscience. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2014. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2014 by Patrick Kendall House
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY).
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