The fundamental issue of how a schistosome survives, or is targeted for destruction, in a snail host has important implications for the epidemiology of schistosomiasis. Preceding groundwork clearly showed that genetic variations in the snail Biomphalaria glabrata play a major role in the intramolluscan development of the parasitic helminth Schistosoma mansoni. Snail stocks that were genetically selected as either parasite resistant or susceptible have provided us with valuable resources for identifying markers as well as gene(s) important in the snail/parasite relationship. Our objective is to use well-established molecular tools, studying defined snail stocks with stable but different susceptibility phenotypes, to identify and characterize those snail genes that play a critical role in resisting, or fully supporting, a schistosome infection. Polymorphisms in resistant vs. susceptible snail DNA should enable us to efficiently isolate probes targeting those sequences involved in the snail/parasite relationship. Use will also be made of examining the heritability of polymorphic markers in progeny snails that segregate for resistance or susceptibility. By generating suppression subtraction hybridization (SSH) libraries from exposed vs normal resistant and susceptible juvenile snails and, by screening an available snail microarray with cDNA probes from resistant and susceptible juvenile snails ( parasite infection), we hope to identify genes that govern these different infection phenotypes in this snail-host. For positional mapping of B. glabrata chromosomes by FISH, we will use (as probes) BAG clones, corresponding to transcripts identified from the microarray/subtraction studies. Our overall strategy is to reduce the inflow of repetitive markers and combine useful information gained at both DNA and RNA levels to dissect relevant gene products involved in parasite development or destruction coded for, within the relatively large B. glabrata genome.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01AI063480-03
Application #
7216683
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-VB (01))
Program Officer
Costero, Adriana
Project Start
2005-07-01
Project End
2010-03-31
Budget Start
2007-04-01
Budget End
2008-03-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2007
Total Cost
$468,539
Indirect Cost
Name
Biomedical Research Institute
Department
Type
DUNS #
076137314
City
Rockville
State
MD
Country
United States
Zip Code
20852
Mitta, G; Gourbal, B; Grunau, C et al. (2017) The Compatibility Between Biomphalaria glabrata Snails and Schistosoma mansoni: An Increasingly Complex Puzzle. Adv Parasitol 97:111-145
Knight, Matty; Elhelu, O; Smith, M et al. (2015) Susceptibility of Snails to Infection with Schistosomes is influenced by Temperature and Expression of Heat Shock Proteins. Epidemiology (Sunnyvale) 5:
Arican-Goktas, Halime D; Ittiprasert, Wannaporn; Bridger, Joanna M et al. (2014) Differential spatial repositioning of activated genes in Biomphalaria glabrata snails infected with Schistosoma mansoni. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 8:e3013
Ittiprasert, Wannaporn; Miller, André; Su, Xin-zhuan et al. (2013) Identification and characterisation of functional expressed sequence tags-derived simple sequence repeat (eSSR) markers for genetic linkage mapping of Schistosoma mansoni juvenile resistance and susceptibility loci in Biomphalaria glabrata. Int J Parasitol 43:669-77
Ittiprasert, Wannaporn; Knight, Matty (2012) Reversing the resistance phenotype of the Biomphalaria glabrata snail host Schistosoma mansoni infection by temperature modulation. PLoS Pathog 8:e1002677
Knight, Matty; Miller, Andre; Liu, Yijia et al. (2011) Polyethyleneimine (PEI) mediated siRNA gene silencing in the Schistosoma mansoni snail host, Biomphalaria glabrata. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 5:e1212
Knight, Matty; Ittiprasert, Wannaporn; Odoemelam, Edwin C et al. (2011) Non-random organization of the Biomphalaria glabrata genome in interphase Bge cells and the spatial repositioning of activated genes in cells co-cultured with Schistosoma mansoni. Int J Parasitol 41:61-70
Ittiprasert, Wannaporn; Miller, Andre; Myers, Jocelyn et al. (2010) Identification of immediate response genes dominantly expressed in juvenile resistant and susceptible Biomphalaria glabrata snails upon exposure to Schistosoma mansoni. Mol Biochem Parasitol 169:27-39
Odoemelam, Edwin C; Raghavan, Nithya; Ittiprasert, Wannaporn et al. (2010) FISH on chromosomes derived from the snail model organism Biomphalaria glabrata. Methods Mol Biol 659:379-88
Odoemelam, Edwin; Raghavan, Nithya; Miller, Andrè et al. (2009) Revised karyotyping and gene mapping of the Biomphalaria glabrata embryonic (Bge) cell line. Int J Parasitol 39:675-81

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