5 ms·

‘The Last of Us,’ fruit fly edition

echelon 3y ago
Toxoplasmosis causes infected rats to change their behavior. They stop fearing cats, and are thus at greatly enhanced risk of being eaten. This is part of the parasite's lifecycle. Toxo also infects humans and is known to increase risk-taking behaviors: https://blogs.biomedcentral.com/bugbitten/2018/09/11/mind-altering-microbes-can-toxoplasma-gondii-infection-increase-entrepreneurship/ https://blogs.biomedcentral.com/bugbitten/2018/09/11/mind-al...
- zxexz 3y ago
  Agreed that Toxoplasmosis is interesting! Just wanted to point out that Toxoplasma Gondii is a protozoan and not a fungus.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- lloeki 3y ago
  Rabies prevents swallowing and induces hydrophobia, increasing the chance of transmission on biting, and paranoia and delirium, increasing the chance of biting.
- mach1ne 3y ago
  >They stop fearing cats, and are thus at greatly enhanced risk of being eaten. Recent studies have shown that it doesn’t reduce their fear of cats, it reduces their fear in general. Manipulating the mammalian brain, other than in broad strokes, is extremely difficult.
- GuB-42 3y ago
  > Toxo also infects humans and is known to increase risk-taking behaviors. Not "known", more like "suspected". Evidence is rather weak at the moment, with studies that contradict each others, I think it is safer to say that we don't know.
- JamesLeonis 3y ago
  There is also a growing body of evidence that Toxoplasmas is linked to schizophrenia [0]. HN discussion [1] [0]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763422003839 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014976342... [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34021789 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34021789
Jedd 3y ago
Article is focused on the study of the parasite, but weirdly didn't touch on the potential hobby / commercial use of a fungus that attacks fruit fly. Here in Australia we have two major fruit fly pests - the Mediterranean (introduced) and the Queensland (native). Pesticides are either very nasty or very expensive (or both). Effective netting is extremely difficult, and very expensive. There's been some promising progress on using fungus to try to control two major honey industry pests - small hive beetle and varroa destructor. I'm really looking forward to deploy-and-mostly-forget bio controls for pests that we can deploy at landmass level. eg. https://www.science.org/content/article/scientists-evolve-fungus-battle-deadly-honey-bee-parasite https://www.science.org/content/article/scientists-evolve-fu... (Varroa) https://agrifutures.com.au/wp-content/uploads/publications/09-090.pdf https://agrifutures.com.au/wp-content/uploads/publications/0... (small hive beetle)
- bibanez 3y ago
  The pest control you’re talking about seems really dangerous. Disrupting an entire species and consequently the food chain + giving zombie fungus a lot of biomass to feed on and evolve…
  - elliotwagner 3y ago
    sounds like a movie plot haha
  - viraptor 3y ago
    > Disrupting an entire species and consequently the food chain One of the types was introduced in a not very distant past, so it doesn't seem like a bigger disruption than what we've already done.
    - teaearlgraycold 3y ago
      You should read up on stoat introduction to New Zealand.
      - 3y ago

Toxoplasmosis causes infected rats to change their behavior. They stop fearing cats, and are thus at greatly enhanced risk of being eaten. This is part of the parasite's lifecycle. Toxo also infects humans and is known to increase risk-taking behaviors: https://blogs.biomedcentral.com/bugbitten/2018/09/11/mind-altering-microbes-can-toxoplasma-gondii-infection-increase-entrepreneurship/ https://blogs.biomedcentral.com/bugbitten/2018/09/11/mind-al...

zxexz 3y ago
Agreed that Toxoplasmosis is interesting! Just wanted to point out that Toxoplasma Gondii is a protozoan and not a fungus.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
lloeki 3y ago
Rabies prevents swallowing and induces hydrophobia, increasing the chance of transmission on biting, and paranoia and delirium, increasing the chance of biting.
mach1ne 3y ago
>They stop fearing cats, and are thus at greatly enhanced risk of being eaten. Recent studies have shown that it doesn’t reduce their fear of cats, it reduces their fear in general. Manipulating the mammalian brain, other than in broad strokes, is extremely difficult.
GuB-42 3y ago
> Toxo also infects humans and is known to increase risk-taking behaviors. Not "known", more like "suspected". Evidence is rather weak at the moment, with studies that contradict each others, I think it is safer to say that we don't know.
JamesLeonis 3y ago
There is also a growing body of evidence that Toxoplasmas is linked to schizophrenia [0]. HN discussion [1] [0]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763422003839 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014976342... [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34021789 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34021789

Jedd 3y ago

Article is focused on the study of the parasite, but weirdly didn't touch on the potential hobby / commercial use of a fungus that attacks fruit fly. Here in Australia we have two major fruit fly pests - the Mediterranean (introduced) and the Queensland (native). Pesticides are either very nasty or very expensive (or both). Effective netting is extremely difficult, and very expensive. There's been some promising progress on using fungus to try to control two major honey industry pests - small hive beetle and varroa destructor. I'm really looking forward to deploy-and-mostly-forget bio controls for pests that we can deploy at landmass level. eg. https://www.science.org/content/article/scientists-evolve-fungus-battle-deadly-honey-bee-parasite https://www.science.org/content/article/scientists-evolve-fu... (Varroa) https://agrifutures.com.au/wp-content/uploads/publications/09-090.pdf https://agrifutures.com.au/wp-content/uploads/publications/0... (small hive beetle)

bibanez 3y ago
The pest control you’re talking about seems really dangerous. Disrupting an entire species and consequently the food chain + giving zombie fungus a lot of biomass to feed on and evolve…
- elliotwagner 3y ago
  sounds like a movie plot haha
- viraptor 3y ago
  > Disrupting an entire species and consequently the food chain One of the types was introduced in a not very distant past, so it doesn't seem like a bigger disruption than what we've already done.
  - teaearlgraycold 3y ago
    You should read up on stoat introduction to New Zealand.
    - 3y ago