Cane toad vs. lung worm: An arms race to see who has a leg-up

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-02-14 11:01

Australia; NSW

Image by sandid from Pixabay

The battle between cane toads and a parasitic lungworm is an evolutionary arms race, and at the invasion front, it's the lungworms that may have a leg-up. Cane toads were introduced to Australia in the 1930s and they didn’t come alone. The toads brought a lungworm parasite with them from South America and they've been locked in an arms race ever since. The researchers found that In Queensland, where cane toads invaded over 20 years ago, toads have the upper hand as they are more resistant to infection by the local lungworms, but on the invasion front in WA, super-infectious lungworms have evolved, giving the parasites the advantage.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

A biological invasion disrupts the arms race between hosts and their parasite

Summary: By imposing novel selection pressures on both participants, biological invasions can modify evolutionary “arms races” between hosts and parasites. A spatially replicated cross-infection experiment reveals strong spatial divergence in the ability of lungworms (Rhabdias pseudosphaerocephala) to infect invasive cane toads (Rhinella marina) in Australia. In areas colonised for > 20 years, toads are more resistant to infection by local strains of parasites than by allopatric strains. The situation reverses at the invasion front, where super-infective parasites have evolved.

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Research The Royal Society, Web page Please link to the article in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends).

Journal/
conference: Proceedings of the Royal Society B

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Macquarie University, The University of New South Wales

Funder: The authors received no funding for this study.

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