Dr. Tom Sistermans

Research interests

• Parasite-host interactions
• Parasite manipulation
• Molecular ecology
• Pathogen evolution
• Molecular evolution

My primary interest concerns the evolution of parasite-host interactions. Over half of the world’s organisms are parasitic and we find fossil evidence of parasites as far back as the early Cambrian. Parasitism has evolved multiple times across many different taxa. Though a successful lifestyle, it also comes with its own set of problems. Obviously, given the definition of parasitism, the host isn’t very happy with the parasite’s presence and therefore, the parasite always finds itself in a hostile environment upon parasitizing. This requires the parasite to adapt to the specificities of its host and the host to adapt to the specificities of the parasite. This evolutionary dynamic causes the parasite to have a unique understanding of the host’s biology that we often haven’t begun to figure out. To that end, parasites offer us an experimental condition that will help us understand their hosts as well as they do.

My main goal is to understand the molecular dynamics and evolution between parasite and host. I’m fascinated by the extend to which parasites can influence their hosts, be it through the inhibition or the avoidance of their host’s immune systems or full-on manipulation where the parasite can be regarded as a puppet master of host behaviour. To this day, our knowledge is very limited on how these interactions evolve. Given the diversity of these “extended phenotypes” of parasites, few have attempted to figure out how these systems can evolve from relatively simple to incredibly complex. 

In the Wilfert lab I’m currently working on tackling these molecular evolutionary dynamics starting at potential influence that the mite Varroa destructor has on its host, the European Honeybee (Apis mellifera) but also how it influences the virulence of Deformed Wing Virus (DWV) trying to also decouple the influence of V. destructor from the virus itself. I also plan to increase the reach and involve different parasite-host systems where we find strong evidence of “manipulation”. Feel free to reach out to me if you’re interested in collaborating on anything or if you’re a student interested in doing a project with me, I’m always happy to discuss ideas and aspirations!

Sistermans, T., Libbrecht, R., & Foitzik, S. (2026). Integrated co-expression analysis of host–parasite transcriptomes reveals mechanisms of host modulation in an ant–cestode system. BMC Genomics, 27(1), 232. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-026-12581-6 (external link, opens in a new window)

Sistermans, T., Darras, H., Ronget, V., Beros, S., Hartke, J., Stoldt, M., Libbrecht, R., Kokko, H., & Foitzik, S. (2025). Parasite prevalence in a social host has colony-wide impacts on transcriptional activity and survival. Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution, 79(9), 1862–1875. https://doi.org/10.1093/evolut/qpaf118 (external link, opens in a new window) 

Sistermans, T., Hartke, J., Stoldt, M., Libbrecht, R., & Foitzik, S. (2023). The influence of parasite load on transcriptional activity and morphology of a cestode and its ant intermediate host. Molecular Ecology, 32(15), 4412–4426. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.16995 (external link, opens in a new window) 

Hartke, J., Ceron-Noriega, A., Stoldt, M., Sistermans, T., Kever, M., Fuchs, J., Butter, F., & Foitzik, S. (2023). Long live the host! Proteomic analysis reveals possible strategies for parasitic manipulation of its social host. Molecular Ecology, 32(21), 5877–5889. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.17155 (external link, opens in a new window) 

Gultyaev, A. P., Koster, C., Van Batenburg, D. C., Sistermans, T., Belle, N. V., Vijfvinkel, D., & Roussis, A. (2023). Conserved structured domains in plant non-coding RNA enod40, their evolution and recruitment of sequences from transposable elements. NAR Genomics and Bioinformatics, 5, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1093/nargab/lqad091 (external link, opens in a new window) 

Roelofs, D., Zwaenepoel, A., Sistermans, T., Nap, J., Kampfraath, A. A., Van De Peer, Y., Ellers, J., & Kraaijeveld, K. (2020). Multi-faceted analysis provides little evidence for recurrent whole-genome duplications during hexapod evolution. BMC Biology, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-020-00789-1 (external link, opens in a new window)