This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Parasitic infections affect nearly 1 in 6 people worldwide. These infections thrive when parasites are able to evade, inhibit, or disrupt host defense mechanisms. One way parasites avoid the immune response is to disguise themselves as dying host cells. Normal host cells undergoing apoptosis expose a molecule called phosphatidylserine (PS) on the plasma membrane as a signal to surrounding cells. This signal is detected by phagocytic immune cells, which engulf the dying cell and reduce inflammation. The system is co-opted by parasites, who use PS as a Trojan horse to enter phagocytic immune cells, infecting the host. This process, known as “apoptotic mimicry, ”takes several forms. Classical apoptotic mimicry - where the PS comes from the challenger - is used by the parasites that cause leishmaniasis, American trypanosomiasis, and toxoplasmosis; while non-classical apoptotic mimicry, which co-opts PS exposed by dying host cells, is used by the parasites that cause malaria and amebiasis..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The tick-borne parasite Theileria annulata can cause life-threatening illness in cows. Buparvaquone is the only available drug treatment, but the incidence of buparvaquone (BPQ) resistance is increasing so alternative therapies are needed. To help, researchers recently tested the efficacy of the anti-malaria drug artemisinin and its derivatives against T. annulata infection. Artemisinin itself wasn’t effective, but all of its derivatives were able to selectively kill parasite-infected cells. Artesunate (ARS) and dihydroartemisinin (DHART) were especially potent and either drug could act synergistically with BPQ, enhancing the parasite-killing effects of the individual compounds. Investigation of the mechanism revealed that ARS and DHART caused oxidative stress and DNA damage in the infected cells which activated the protein p53 and the caspase-dependent cell death pathway..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Biology is designed for multi-semester biology courses for science majors. It is grounded on an evolutionary basis and includes exciting features that highlight careers in the biological sciences and everyday applications of the concepts at hand. To meet the needs of today’s instructors and students, some content has been strategically condensed while maintaining the overall scope and coverage of traditional texts for this course. Instructors can customize the book, adapting it to the approach that works best in their classroom. Biology also includes an innovative art program that incorporates critical thinking and clicker questions to help students understand—and apply—key concepts.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Describe representative protist organisms from each of the six presently recognized supergroups of eukaryotesIdentify the evolutionary relationships of plants, animals, and fungi within the six presently recognized supergroups of eukaryotes

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Discuss the predator-prey cycleGive examples of defenses against predation and herbivoryDescribe the competitive exclusion principleGive examples of symbiotic relationships between speciesDescribe community structure and succession

Students learn about water poverty and how water engineers can develop appropriate solutions to a problem that is plaguing nearly a sixth of the world's population. Students follow the engineering design process to design a gravity-fed water system. They choose between different system parameters such as pipe sizes, elevation differentials between entry and exit pipes, pipe lengths and tube locations to find a design that provides the maximum flow and minimum water turbidity (cloudiness) at the point of use. In this activity, students play the role of water engineers by designing and building model gravity-fed water systems, learning the key elements necessary for viable projects that help improve the lives people in developing communities.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Describe representative protist organisms from each of the six presently recognized supergroups of eukaryotesIdentify the evolutionary relationships of plants, animals, and fungi within the six presently recognized supergroups of eukaryotes

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Livestock health is critical to food security, and parasite infections are a major threat. Gastrointestinal helminths have a huge impact on health and welfare of livestock and on food production worldwide. Resistance to parasiticides has become widespread, making the control of these infections highly challenging. Control strategies thus far have targeted either the parasite or the host’s immune response, but a third party may hold the key to addressing this issue. Microbes residing within the livestock gut are likely to contribute to the immunopathology of helminth infections. A recent study examined the relationships between gastrointestinal helminths, the host immune system, and the gut microbiota. Using DNA sequencing and confocal microscopy, researchers assessed fluctuations in the microbiota and local immune responses of vaccinated and unvaccinated helminth-infected sheep. Their results showed that gut microbial composition changed significantly during parasite infection..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Compared to people living in industrialized areas, traditional indigenous people have much more diverse gut microbiomes. They also have higher rates of parasitic worm (helminth) infection, but it’s unclear if helminth infection influences their microbiomes, partly because there is a lack of metagenomic data from these populations. To learn more, researchers recently sequenced 650 gut metagenomes from indigenous Orang Asli Malaysians living in five villages with different helminth infection rates. They found that the individuals from more heavily helminth-infected villages had more diverse microbiomes and more uncharacterized gut microbes. The specific village was the strongest driver of microbial community diversity and composition and the effects of helminth infection on the microbiome differed among villages..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Parasitic worms affect more than 1..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

In this video, Jonathan travels to the Micronesian island of Yap in the middle of the Pacific to investigate large gatherings of the world's largest ray‰ŰÓthe manta. A research program there is tracking dozens of these animals and Jonathan learns what they're doing hanging around certain coral heads every morning. Please see the accompanying lesson plan on tides for educational objectives, discussion points and classroom activities.

In this presentation we will provide a brief overview of the life cycle of the malaria parasite, and hereby introduce the precise terms for the various phases.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"In cancer, tumor cells secrete chemicals that suppress immune function by upregulating the expression of immune “brakes”. Immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors can release these brakes to effectively treat certain types of cancer. However, other types of cancer are resistant to checkpoint inhibitors, so alternate treatments are needed. In mouse models, infection with the malaria parasite Plasmodium can activate immune defense against cancer. Similarly, global human epidemiological data indicate that malaria occurrence is inversely associated with cancer mortality. In mice, Plasmodium induces proinflammatory molecule production, immune cell activation, and subsequent systemic immune responses while simultaneously upregulating the expression of brake molecules through a feedback mechanism of the immune system to prevent unchecked damage by these immune responses..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Roaming the forest floor, these army ants are doing what army ants do best: hunting insects to bring back to the colony. But they're not alone. The practice of gathering and consolidating enormous amounts of food has piqued the interest of other insects looking for an easy meal. It's a scene that plays out in most army ant communities; rarely are these colonies composed exclusively of ants, but often include numerous 'guest' species. A team of researchers from the US and Germany recently conducted a survey of these _guests_ in the tropical rainforest of Costa Rica. Using their morphological expertise and DNA sequence data, they were able to identify several new species of insects that had integrated themselves into the ant colonies. Among them, a hitch-hiking beetle disguised as an ant’s rear-end. Unlike most ants, army ants are nomadic. During their most active periods, the colony will move to a new nest site every day. This presents two difficult tasks for guest insects..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This video features the remarkable discovery Jonathan made in 1998 about Basking sharks, the second largest fish on Earth. While diving with Basking sharks in the frigid waters of the Bay of Fundy, Jonathan saw parasitic lampreys on the backs of the sharks. This had never before been documented, so he returned the next year with a shark biologist and a lamprey biologist to attempt to recover living lampreys from the backs of Basking sharks. They didn't think Jonathan could do it. Wait until you see what happens! Please see the accompanying lesson plan for educational objectives, discussion points and classroom activities.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Chagas disease is caused by the parasite _Trypanosoma cruzi. T. cruzi_ is transmitted between animals and people in the feces of blood-drinking triatomines or ‘kissing bugs’. Some parasites are known to alter the microbiome of their hosts, but that has not been explored in detail for this host-parasite pair. To characterize these potential interactions, researchers examined _Rhodnius prolixus_ after exposure to either _T. cruzi _or _T. rangeli_, a non-pathogenic relative. Exposure to either parasite led to an overall reduction in the number of microbes in the anterior and posterior midgut. Exposure also tended to lead to reductions in the relative abundance of Enterobacterales and Corynebacteriales. Exposure also tended to lead to reductions in the relative abundance of Enterobacterales and Corynebacteriales and to communities with Lactobacillales as the most abundant taxa. This particular pattern of microbial community changes was the most true of insects exposed to _T..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.