DOI: 10.5061/dryad.n2z34tn8c
title: Glutathione data of Eurasian siskins either infected with avian malaria or not

description: Avian haemosporidian parasites are globally widespread with a broad
 repertoire of hosts. When infected, the host can either reduce the
 parasite burden (resistance) and/or limit the severity of parasitaemia
 (tolerance). Oxidative stress is known to play a pivotal role in the
 host’s resistance and tolerance as well as its detrimental endpoints. The
 rationale behind this paradox lies in the dual role of reactive oxygen
 species (ROS): they can have both beneficial and detrimental effects for
 the host, while being largely harmful to the parasite. Thus, it is in the
 parasite’s interest to maintain a reduced environment within the host’s
 cell, whereas the host needs a fine-tuned balance between generating ROS
 to eliminate the parasites and maintaining sufficient antioxidant levels
 to protect its own tissues. This dynamic is what we refer to as the
 host-parasite oxidative arms-race. In this study, Eurasian siskins (Spinus
 spinus) were experimentally infected with Plasmodium ashfordi to
 investigate how the fundamental antioxidant system – the glutathione
 redox-system – responds to infection over time compared to control birds.
 By combining physiological measures and gene expression data of key
 glutathione related genes from both the parasite and the host at different
 time points, we provide evidence of this oxidative arms race. The gene
 expression data show that the parasite actively maintains reduced
 intracellular environment and eliminates ROS through high expression of
 superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione reductase (GR), and glutathione
 synthetase. In contrast, the host upregulates glutathione S-transferases
 (GSTs) and glutathione peroxidases (GPX), which reduce the physiologically
 active levels of the key antioxidant, glutathione. Although, the parasite
 seems to win the race in terms of the oxidative state of the cell, the
 marked decrease in parasitaemia from day 21 (45%) to 31 (15%) suggests
 that the host’s strategy by lowering the physiological glutathione levels
 is sufficient to defeat the parasite.
description: # Glutathione data of Eurasian siskins either infected with avian malaria
 or not Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.n2z34tn8c](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n2z34tn8c) ##
 Description of the data and file structure Total glutathione and oxidized
 glutathione was measured in blood from Eurasian siskins at day 0,11,21 and
 31 after infected with avian malaria. Same assays and days were done on
 control birds i.e., not infected. ### Files and variables #### File:
 Isaksson_et_al._Dryad.csv **Description:**  ##### Variables * LABEL: Blood
 sample ID * Ring No: Bird ID * Sex: Female or male * treatment: C =
 controls and E= experimental birds (infected with malaria) * day: Number
 of days since start of experiment, day of blood sampling either day 0, 11,
 21 or 31. * GSHt (M): Concentration of total glutathione in micromolar *
 GSSG(M): Concentration of oxidized glutathione in micromolar * ratio: the
 ratio between GSHt/GSSG * Parasitemia(%): parasite load in percentage ##
 Code/software It is in csv format, with ';' as the delimiter. ##
 Access information Other publicly accessible locations of the data: *
 Videvall, E., Cornwallis, C.K., Palinauskas, V., Valkinas, G. and
 Hellgren, O. 2015. The avian transcriptome response to malaria infection.
 *Mol. Biol. Evol.* **32**: 1255-67. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msv016. *
 Videvall, E., Cornwallis, C.K., Ahrn, D., Palinauskas, V., Valkinas, G.
 and Hellgren, O. 2017. The transcriptome of the avian malaria parasite
 *Plasmodium ashfordi* displays host-specific gene expression. *Mol. Ecol.*
 **26**: 2939-2958.
 [https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.14085](https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.14085) The
 Malavi database (see Related Works) is currently under reconstruction,
 hence the data will at the moment only be available upon request to the
 corresponding authors.