How a brain-manipulating virus turns caterpillars into zombies

[DainBramaged]

Behavior-modifying parasites are getting more press as of late, with reports of zombie ants and Toxoplamsa-infected rats that become sexually attracted to cats. But it's not just organisms that manipulate their hosts; there's at least one behavior-modifying virus. Just as the parasitic organisms do, baculoviruses change their host's behavior for their own benefit, ensuring their propagation. When infected with a baculovirus, European gypsy moth caterpillars behave in a way that healthy gypsy moth caterpillar never would.

A healthy gypsy moth spends its days hiding in bark crevices or climbing down the tree to the soil during daylight, to avoid predation from birds. They only venture back out onto the leaves under the safety of night. A gypsy moth infected with a baculovirus, however, behaves quite differently. The aptly named "tree top disease" makes the infected gypsy moth caterpillar climb to the top of a tree to die, liquefy, and release millions of infective virus particles.

Once the host is liquified, virus dispersal is then facilitated by rainfall. Scientists have been watching infected moth larvae behave this way for a century, but have only recently identified the mechanism behind the behavior. A team of researchers, led by Dr. Kelli Hoover of Pennsylvania State University, and included other researchers from Pennsylvania State University, Harvard Medical School, and the US Forest Service, have now identified the viral gene behind tree top disease.

The team hypothesized that tree top disease in induced by the expression of a baculovirus gene known as egt. To test this theory, researchers tested six modified viruses for their impact on insect climbing behavior. They placed individual moth larvae in tall plastic bottles that contained food at the bottom and a fiberglass screen for the larvae to climb on. Viruses with the egt gene caused larvae to climb to the top of the container and stay there to die. Deleting the egt gene eliminated this behavior, while reinsertion of the gene restored the climbing behavior once more.

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/09/how-a-brain-manipulating-virus-turns-caterpillars-into-zombies.ars

[ZombieHorde]

1. Recommended. nt

[dtexdem]

2. How did the GOP get ahold of it?

And why did they test it first on their presidential hopefuls? ;-)

[Taverner]

3. One might argue religion is a brain-manipulating virus

:hide:

[woo me with science]

4. Tiny bugs are controlling your mind!

http://www.kurzweilai.net/little-bugs-are-controlling-your-mind?utm_source=KurzweilAI+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=3ca7775bcf-UA-946742-1&utm_medium=email

Tiny bugs are controlling your mind!
Are billions of bacteria influencing your moods? (Credit: Udo's Choice)
August 30, 2011 by Amara D. Angelica


Before you take another probiotic cap, you may want to read this. Yet another study at McMaster University in Canada suggests that gut bacteria might be able to alter your brain chemistry and change your mood and behavior, reports Science NOW.
....
In the new study, McMaster researchers take a slightly bolder step. They fed mice a broth containing a “benign” bacterium, Lactobacillus rhamnosus. The scientists chose this partly because, well, they had some around, so why not, and also because related Lactobacillus bacteria are a major ingredient of probiotic supplements and very little is known about their potential side effects.
....
They found that mice whose diets were supplemented with L. rhamnosus for 6 weeks exhibited fewer signs of stress and anxiety in standard lab tests, as reported online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. For example, the mice spent more time exploring narrow elevated walkways and wide-open spaces, which are scary to rodents. (That might explain the Jackass movies?)
....
Then they cut the vegas nerve, which runs between the stomach and brain, and lo and behold, the effects stopped. The findings “open up very exciting speculations” about using probiotics to treat mood disorders in people, says Emeran Mayer, a gastroenterologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. But he said he’s skeptical that the findings will translate easily from mice to people.
....

[Dragonfli]

5. Is that the "Third way" virus? It's capable of turning Democrats into tax cutting free trade zombies

I mean if "language is a virus" it could at least be related.

[DainBramaged]

6. Nice one

:thumbsup:


Hope you are well!

[Dragonfli]

9. I am feeling much better as I am now receiving some palliative care (mostly pain killers)

Thanks for asking bro!
:toast:

[DainBramaged]

10. I worries about my friends!

:hug:

[Safetykitten]

7. Republicans explained. See? Science does work.

[Duer 157099]

8. What?!? Genes can modify behavior???

Shocking!

(Actually it is fascinating and should give all the fundamentalists something serious to think about. As if.)