Parasitic worms may control minds of insects with 'borrowed' genes.

This article focuses on a study investigating how parasitic horsehair worms (genus Chordodes) manipulate their insect hosts, such as praying mantises, to drown themselves, completing the worms’ life cycle. Researchers found that over 1,400 worm genes expressed during host manipulation closely resemble mantis genes, suggesting extensive horizontal gene transfer—where genes move between species—may have occurred from host to parasite. While this finding could represent the largest known gene transfer between two animal species, alternative explanations such as contamination or gene transfer in the opposite direction have not been fully excluded. The study highlights the complexity of host-parasite interactions and the need for further genomic research to clarify the mechanisms behind this behavioral control.