Moth Virus Changes Host Behavior to Suit Parasitic Demands

Abstract

Viruses can manipulate the behavior of their insect hosts, according to Kelli Hoover at Pennsylvania State University (PSU) in University Park and her collaborators there and at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service (FS) facility in Delaware, Ohio. These findings provide the first solid genetic evidence of an “extended phenotype,” one where “altered host behavior serves parasite rather than host fitness,” says her PSU colleague David P. Hughes.