Re-assessing host manipulation in Toxoplasma: the underexplored role of sexual transmission – evidence, mechanisms, implications
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11310%2F25%3A10498999" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11310/25:10498999 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=Lz8-nT6dep" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=Lz8-nT6dep</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.14411/fp.2025.015" target="_blank" >10.14411/fp.2025.015</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Re-assessing host manipulation in Toxoplasma: the underexplored role of sexual transmission – evidence, mechanisms, implications
Original language description
Latent infection with Toxoplasma gondii (Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908) has been repeatedly correlated with behavioural and physiological changes in both humans and animals. While classically regarded as a parasite transmitted via ingestion or vertical (trans-placental) transmission, accumulating evidence suggests that sexual transmission may also contribute to its epidemiology. This review explores the hypothesis that some behavioural effects of toxoplasmosis-especially those related to attraction, sexual activity, and mate choice-may have evolved to facilitate sexual transmission of the parasite. We summarise findings from animal models and human studies that show modified sexual preferences, altered sexual activity, enhanced attractiveness in infected individuals, and elevated prevalence of T. gondii in groups exhibiting high sexual activity or non-traditional sexual behaviour patterns. Particular attention is given to the role of testosterone, which may mediate both behavioural changes and reproductive consequences, such as shifts in offspring sex ratios and fertility outcomes. Direct detection of the parasite in semen and evidence of transmission through insemination in non-human species further support the plausibility of this route. The observed behavioural effects may also intersect with mechanisms previously thought to enhance predation risk, such as altered fear responses to felid odours. Taken together, these findings point to the possibility that sexual transmission, while likely secondary in humans, may have played a more substantial role in the evolutionary history and current ecology of T. gondii than previously appreciated. This perspective also provides an alternative interpretative framework for understanding the broad spectrum of phenotypic changes associated with latent toxoplasmosis. Further interdisciplinary research is required to clarify the relative contribution of sexual transmission to the parasite's life cycle and to assess its implications for public health and theory of host-parasite coevolution.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
10602 - Biology (theoretical, mathematical, thermal, cryobiology, biological rhythm), Evolutionary biology
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2025
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Folia Parasitologica
ISSN
0015-5683
e-ISSN
1803-6465
Volume of the periodical
72
Issue of the periodical within the volume
May
Country of publishing house
CZ - CZECH REPUBLIC
Number of pages
12
Pages from-to
015
UT code for WoS article
001498323700001
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-105008255217