Before it gets into a cricket, this parasite starts out as an egg that hatches into a free-swimming larva, which then needs to infect an aquatic invertebrate, such as a snail or mosquito larva, to reach its next stage of development as a cyst. Remarkably, the number of offspring produced by worms having escaped a predator was not reduced compared with controls. But the hairworm has a complex life cycle and the cricket is not the only host that it infects throughout its life. In a second step, we attempted to determine whether the energy expended by worms to escape the predator is traded off against its reproductive potential. Peptide Mass Fingerprints of candidate protein spots suggest the existence of an intense muscular activity in escaping worms, which functions in parallel with their distinctive biology. By examining the proteome of the parasitic worm, we detected a differential expression of 27 protein spots in those worms able to escape the predator. Using as a model the hairworm, Paragordius tricuspidatus, (parasitizing the cricket Nemobius sylvestris) and the fish predator Micropterus salmoïdes, we explored, with proteomics tools, the physiological basis of this anti-predator response. ![]() Following the ingestion of the insect host by fish or frogs, the parasitic worm is able to actively exit both its host and the gut of the predator. One of the most fascinating anti-predator responses displayed by parasites is that of hairworms (Nematomorpha).
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