Striking differences in virulence, transmission and sporocyst growth dynamics between two schistosome populations.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Parasite traits associated with transmission success, such as the number of infective stages released from the host, are expected to be optimized by natural selection. However, in the trematode parasite Schistosoma mansoni, a key transmission trait, i.e. the number of cercariae larvae shed from infected Biomphalaria spp. snails, varies significantly within and between different parasite populations and selection experiments demonstrate that this variation has a strong genetic basis. In this study, we compared the transmission strategies of two laboratory schistosome population and their consequences for their snail host.

Methods

We infected inbred Biomphalaria glabrata snails using two S. mansoni parasite populations (SmBRE and SmLE), both isolated from Brazil and

SUBMITTER: Le Clecʼh W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6796389 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature