Maya Sarkar, a student at the University of Minnesota, worked with Isabella Ragonese, Dr. Sonia Altizer and Dr. Richard Hall.<\/p>\n\n\n
Abstract:\nIt is important to understand the consequences\nof a warming climate, especially in organisms that are more sensitive to\ntemperature changes and where the outcome of warming may not be intuitive. This\nproject used the Monarch-OE system to study how temperature may affect\nhost-parasite interactions. The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus<\/em>) is\nan iconic North American migratory species and the specialist protozoan\nparasite OE (Ophryocystis elektroscirrha<\/em>) is present in all monarch\npopulations. It has been shown that monarch development proceeds faster with\nincreasing temperatures and that increased temperature exposure lowers OE spore\ninfectivity over time. However, the effect of temperature on the host and\nparasite during active infection is not known. This project examined how\ntemperature affects the monarch-OE system, focusing on the interaction between\nmonarch immune function and parasite replication. Monarchs were inoculated with\nstrains of OE parasite and placed in different temperature treatments. Three\nlineages (B,F, and D) of migratory monarch were used to test genetic effects,\nwhile 2 spore lines (E3 and E10) were used to study virulence effects within 5\ndifferent temperature treatments (18, 22, 26, 30, and 34\u00b0C). The results of\nthis study provide novel insight to how extreme temperatures affect the fitness\nof a host and its parasite.<\/p>\n\n\nSarkar_sm1<\/a>\n Maya Sarkar, a student at the University of Minnesota, worked with Isabella Ragonese, Dr. Sonia Altizer and Dr. Richard Hall. Abstract: It is important to understand the consequences of a warming climate, especially in organisms that are more sensitive to temperature changes and where the outcome of warming may not be intuitive. This project used<\/p>\n