In nature even autotrophs are dependent, though, they do not harm. Heterotrophs, on the contrary, live at the expense of others in diversified ways. They become town talk when inducing direct or indirect damages.
By Prof Dr Abdullah G Arijo
The parasite is an organism that seeks nutrition and shelter in the host and turns harm to it. But there is a need to improve the understanding as the commensalism category of parasites offer only benefit to their host and in symbiosis, both host and parasite mutually benefit from each other.
Some, if not all, Intestinal parasites such as tapeworms, hookworms and a protist called Blastocystis can be beneficial to human health, according to a new paper that argues we should rethink our views of organisms that live off the human body.
“Parasites inside your body could be protecting you from disease” concludes Ben Ashby a research fellow, at the University of Bath. He further narrates that it is fair to say parasites are generally bad for their hosts. Many cause disease and death so, like most species, we humans usually try to avoid infection at all costs. But it turns out that some parasites, although potentially harmful in isolation, can help hosts to cope with morae deadly infections.
Understanding when parasitism is beneficial has important implications for how we manage infectious diseases, but we currently know very little about this phenomenon. Referring to his new study, published in “Evolution Letters”, Ashby reveals that, parasites can readily evolve different mechanisms to defend their hosts from other infections, which suggests that host protection should be common in nature.
The idea that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” has been around in human society for a long time but it is far from unique to human conflict. The natural world is full of examples where parasites are harmful under some conditions and helpful under others.
We need to understand the very phenomenon of coexistence. A parasite must peacefully live in the host, or it may because of waking up the host immune system, that can start a battle between host and parasite. In either case, no matter who wins, the parasite is at loss. If the parasite kills its hosts with virulent behaviour, with the death of the host the parasite will also die, and if the host by activating its immune power kill the parasite, again it is a loss to the parasite, so in all circumstances, the parasite likes to live in peaceful coexistence with hots.
Tommy Leung, Lecturer in Parasitology and Evolutionary Biology, University of New England has a nice argument that he has revealed in “Good parasite, bad parasite: nature has a job for everyone”
Tommy takes the case of the hairworm parasite. It is a cricket’s nightmare. When the parasite reaches maturity, it needs to escape into the water, so it forces its host to go for an unwitting dunk in a nearby stream or pond. A cricket that is infected with a hairworm is about 20 times more likely to stumble into a stream than an uninfected cricket.
But the very act of forcing crickets to their watery grave functions as a kind of fast-food delivery service for the fish living in those streams. Cricket do not normally jump into streams and drowning cricket is usually a rare treat for any fish. But thanks to the hairworm, these fish get to feast regularly on these large insects and it has been calculated that this straight-to-your-stream food delivery service accounts for more than half of the trout population’s energy intake in some watersheds.
In an ecosystem every organism has an “Ecological Nitch” under that, their role is defined. You may not have a realization, and that may be your ignorance, but the creator never creates useless creatures.
Humans in the recent past have eliminated a significant number of species including insects that help in cross-pollination, and this has resulted in low pollination or no pollination, which ultimately affects crop production with extremely low yield. We therefore must revisit the approach and look for ways and means to improve management with the least effect on species elimination.
The narration of Leah Samuel is worth buying that “parasites are typically seen as dangerous, as well as disgusting. The nastier ones can gnaw off a fish’s tongue, hijack an ant’s brain, or cause human limbs to swell to grotesque deformity, but parasites can also have some beneficial impacts on human hosts.
Some parasites may boost fertility. A study published in the journal Science suggested that “being infected with roundworms might make a woman more fertile”
It is also concluded that parasites might bring relief from allergies. One theory is that hyperclean modern society has greatly reduced human exposure to parasites. Consequently, the immune system does not have much to do except pick fights with proteins from peanuts or pollen.
Researcher John Turton tried this in the 1970s. A chronic allergy sufferer who worked for the Medical Research Council in the United Kingdom, Turton intentionally infected himself with parasitic hookworms. He later reported in The Lancet that his allergic reactions were reduced for the two years that the parasites lived inside him.
Parasites may also reduce symptoms of irritable bowel disease. The researchers have found that chronic infection with a parasite like a roundworm “restored the mucus and cell morphology within the small intestines.”
Surprisingly, Parasites could help heal wounds. Liver flukes for example produce a type of protein called granulin, which can cause the unchecked proliferation of cells that mark cancer. One theory is that hookworms trigger regulatory T cells, which keep inflammation under control. Or it could be that the parasites induce changes in the gut flora that somehow mitigate the symptoms of multiple sclerosis.
In nature every individual plays both a positive and negative role, hence every organism has a kind of utility.