Dr. Mikhail (Misha) Gopko

Research Group Animal Evolutionary Ecology (Prof. Kurtz)

Hüfferstraße 1, Room 201
48149 Münster
Phone: +49 251 83-21653
E-mail: gopkomv@gmail.com

‘Native’ hydrobiologist I received MSc studying rotifers, however, later I switched to behavioral ecology studies. In the course of my PhD, I studied host-parasite interactions and interaction between parasites within the host. The most exciting part of this research concerned parasitic manipulations of host phenotype, a well-known hypothesis about parasites’ ability to change host behavior or something else to increase their own fitness.
Another research direction which attracts me a lot is much closer to ‘typical’ ecological studies. Recently, I have investigated how the presence of predators feeding on free-living stages of parasites can influence the parasite transmission success in freshwater environments.
Here, in IEB, I am planning to study how the presence of infected individuals can influence the properties of fish shoals and their attractiveness for potential newcomers going to join a shoal. I suggest that at certain conditions the presence of a small share of infected individuals in the shoal maybe even beneficial for uninfected conspecifics, e.g. because infected ones are not ‘naive’ to parasitic threat and could be better in avoiding it. Potentially, my project can increase our knowledge about sources of phenotypic heterogeneity in animal groups.
P.S. My ‘favorite’ parasite is a trematode Diplostomum pseudospathaceum!

Publications

1) Gopko M.V., Chowdhury M., Taskinen J. (2018) Interactions between two parasites of brown trout (Salmo trutta): consequences of pre-infection. Ecology and Evolution, https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4406
2) Mironova E.I., Gopko M.V., Pasternak A.F., Mikheev V.N., Taskinen J. (2018) Trematode cercariae as prey for zooplankton: effect on fitness traits of predators. Parasitology, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031182018000963
3) Gopko M.V., Mikheev V.N., Taskinen J. (2017) Positive density-dependent growth supports costs sharing hypothesis and population density sensing in a manipulative parasite. Parasitology, 144:1511-1518.
4) Gopko M.V.*, Mironova E.I.*, Pasternak A.F., Mikheev V.N., Taskinen J. (2017) Freshwater mussels (Anodonta anatina) reduce transmission of a common fish trematode (eye fluke, Diplostomum pseudospathaceum). Parasitology, 144:1971-1979.
5) Gopko M.V., Mikheev V.N. Parasitic manipulations of host behavior: effects within the host body and in the environment. Biology Bulletin Reviews, https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079086419010018. (initially in Russian, translated to English)