A new R package and web application for detecting bilateral asymmetry in parasitic infections.
Publication Date
2016-11-10Journal Title
Folia Parasitol (Praha)
ISSN
0015-5683
Publisher
Biology Centre, AS CR
Volume
63
Language
eng
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Physical Medium
Electronic
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Wayland, M., & Chubb, J. C. (2016). A new R package and web application for detecting bilateral asymmetry in parasitic infections.. Folia Parasitol (Praha), 63 https://doi.org/10.14411/fp.2016.039
Abstract
When parasites invade paired structures of their host non-randomly, the resulting asymmetry may have both pathological and ecological significance. To facilitate the detection and visualisation of asymmetric infections we have developed a free software tool, Analysis of Symmetry of Parasitic Infections (ASPI). This tool has been implemented as an R package (https://cran.r-project.org/package=aspi) and a web application (https://wayland.shinyapps.io/aspi). ASPI can detect both consistent bias towards one side, and inconsistent bias in which the left side is favoured in some hosts and the right in others. Application of ASPI is demonstrated using previously unpublished data on the distribution of metacercariae of species of Diplostomum von Nordmann, 1832 in the eyes of ruffe Gymnocephalus cernua (Linnaeus). Invasion of the lenses appeared to be random, with the proportion of metacercariae in the left and right lenses showing the pattern expected by chance. However, analysis of counts of metacercariae from the humors, choroid and retina revealed asymmetry between eyes in 38% of host fish.
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.14411/fp.2016.039
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/261569
Rights
Licence:
http://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved
Statistics
Total file downloads (since January 2020). For more information on metrics see the
IRUS guide.