Host-dependent impairment of parasite development and reproduction in the acanthocephalan model
Background: A central question in parasitology is why parasites mature and reproduce in some host species but not in others. Yet, a better understanding of the inability of parasites to complete their life cycles in less suitable hosts may hold clues for their control. To shed light on the molecular...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
2022
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://openscience.ub.uni-mainz.de/handle/20.500.12030/8185 https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12030/8185 https://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-8170 |
| Summary: | Background: A central question in parasitology is why parasites mature and reproduce in some host species but not in others. Yet, a better understanding of the inability of parasites to complete their life cycles in less suitable hosts may hold clues for their control. To shed light on the molecular basis of parasite (non-)maturation, we analyzed ranscrip-tomes of thorny-headed worms (Acanthocephala: Pomphorhynchus laevis), and compared developmentally arrested worms excised from European eel (Anguilla anguilla) to developmentally unrestricted worms from barbel (Barbus barbus). Results: Based on 20 RNA-Seq datasets, we demonstrate that ranscriptomic profles are more similar between P. laevis males and females from eel than between their counterparts from barbel. Impairment of sexual phenotype development was refected in gene ontology enrichment analyses of genes having diferential transcript abundances. Genes having reproduction- and energy-related annotations were found to be afected by parasitizing either eel or barbel. According to this, the molecular machinery of male and female acanthocephalans from the eel is less tai lored to reproduction and more to coping with the less suitable environment provided by this host. The pattern was reversed in their counterparts from the defnitive host, barbel. Conclusions: Comparative analysis of transcriptomes of evelopmentally arrested and reproducing parasites elucidates the challenges parasites encounter in hosts which are unsuitable for maturation and reproduction. By studying a gonochoric species, we were also able to highlight sex-specifc traits. In fact, transcriptomic evidence for energy shortage in female acanthocephalans associates with their larger body size. Thus, energy metabolism and glycolysis should be promising targets for the treatment of acanthocephaliasis. Although inherently enabling a higher resolu tion in heterosexuals, the comparison of parasites from defnitive hosts and less suitable hosts, in which the parasites merely survive, should be ... |
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