Staff directory
Ruben Schols
Biology
Invertebrates
Invertebrates
Publication details
Schols, R., Hammoud, C., Maes, T., Senghor, B., Vanoverberghe, I., Huyse, T. & Decaestecker, E. 2023. ‘The snail-trematode-microbiome tripartite interaction: From lab manipulations to the field’. Belgian Society for Parasitology and Protistology (BSPP). Book of abstracts. Leuven.
Conference abstract
Snail-borne diseases affect over 250 million people worldwide and pose a substantial burden on the livestock industry. A fundamental understanding of the drivers of the epidemiology of these diseases is crucial for the development of sustainable control measures. The microbiome is increasingly being recognized as an important player in the interaction between parasitic flatworms and snail intermediate hosts. In order to better understand this interaction, field and lab-based studies, including microbiome transplant experiments whereby the microbiome is transferred between a donor and a recipient host, are needed. We conducted a transplant and an infection experiment in the lab on Biomphalaria glabrata and collected field data in the Senegal River Basin (SRB) focused on Bulinus spp. Molecular tools characterized flatworm infections and the bacteriome of selected snail samples. We conducted a successful snail microbiome transplant and show that the phylogenetic relatedness between the recipient and donor snail affects the recipient’s survival probability. Furthermore, the microbiome changes throughout flatworm infection development in B. glabrata. Moreover, sympatric host-parasite combinations might affect the microbiome differently compared to allopatric ones. Finally, the SRB field dataset showed marked variation in the microbiome between species and across regions but not between infected and uninfected samples. Combined with information on the co-infection status of our samples, these findings could provide further insights into the relationship between infection status and microbiome. Transplant experiments, complemented by field-based studies, could facilitate future research endeavors to investigate the role of specific bacteria or bacterial communities in parasitic flatworm resistance of freshwater snails and might ultimately pave the way for microbiome-mediated control of snail-borne diseases.