Vlastnosti člověka jsou dány prostředím a jeho vlastními geny, ale také geny jeho parazitů. Druh toxoplazmy Toxoplasma gondii, kterou je nakaženo 30 % osob, ovlivňuje chování, psychiku, vzhled, reprodukci a sexuální i čichové preference svého hostitele. Některé změny jsou produktem účelné manipulace ze strany parazita, který tak zvyšuje účinnost svého přenosu, jiné představují vedlejší produkt jeho vlivu na lidské zdraví.

Použitá a citovaná literatura:
Hutchison, W. M., Bradley, M., Cheyne, W. M., Wells, B. W. P., Hay, J. 1980: Behavioural abnormalities in Toxoplasma -infected mice. 74, 337-345
Flegr, J. 2013: Influence of latent Toxoplasma infection on human personality, physiology and morphology: pros and cons of the Toxoplasma-human model in studying the manipulation hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Biology 216, 127-133.
Alvarado-Esquivel, C., Torres-Castorena, A., Liesenfeld, O., Estrada-Martinez, S., Urbina-Alvarez, J. D. 2012 High seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in a subset of Mexican patients with work accidents and low socioeconomic status. Parasites & Vectors 5, 10.1186/1756-3305-5-13.
Berdoy, M., Webster, J. P., Macdonald, D. W. 2000 Fatal attraction in rats infected with Toxoplasma gondii. Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences 267, 1591-1594.
Flegr, J., Lenochová, P., Hodný, Z., Vondrová, M. 2011 Fatal attraction phenomenon in humans: cat odour attractiveness increased for Toxoplasma-infected men while decreased for infected women. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 5, e1389.
Poirotte, C., Kappeler, P. M., Ngoubangoye, B., Bourgeois, S., Moussodji, M., Charpentier, M. J. E. Morbid attraction to leopard urine in Toxoplasma-infected chimpanzees. Current Biology 26, R98-R99.
Dass, S. A. H., Vyas, A. 2014. Toxoplasma gondii infection reduces predator aversion in rats through epigenetic modulation in the host medial amygdala. Molecular Ecology 23, 6114-6122.
Dama, M. S., Novakova, L. M., Flegr, J. 2016 Do differences in Toxoplasma prevalence influence global variation in secondary sex ratio? Preliminary ecological regression study. Parasitology 143, 1193-1203.
Kaňková, Š., Flegr, J. 2007 Longer pregnancy and slower fetal development in women with latent "asymptomatic" toxoplasmosis. BMC Infectious Diseases 7, art: 114.
Kaňkova, S., Šulc, J., Křivohlavá, R., Kuběna, A., Flegr, J. 2012. Slower postnatal motor development in infants of mothers with latent toxoplasmosis during the first 18 months of life. Early Human Development 88, 879-884.
Hostomská, L., Jírovec, O., Horáčková, M., Hrubcová, M. 1957 The role of toxoplasmosis in the mother in the development of mongolism in the child (in Czech). 12, 713-723.
Hsu, P. C., Groer, M., Beckie, T. 2014 New findings: Depression, suicide, and Toxoplasma gondii infection. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. 26, 629-637.

The properties of a human being are determined by his environment, genes, and the genes of his parasites. The parasitic species Toxoplasma gondii infects about 30 % of people and affects their behaviour, personality, morphology, reproduction, and both sexual and olfactory preferen­ces. Some changes represent the products of adaptive manipulation which increases rates of parasite transmission, while others are the side-effects of the impaired health.