Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR PARASITOLOGY
Volume 33, Issue 11, Pages 1277-1284Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/S0020-7519(03)00161-9
Keywords
schistosoma; blood fluke; helminth; development; transmission
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Funding
- NIAID NIH HHS [F32 AI010424-03, F32 AI10424, F32 AI010424] Funding Source: Medline
- NIDDK NIH HHS [P30 DK026743, DK26743] Funding Source: Medline
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Developmental plasticity in helminth life cycles serves, in most cases, to increase the probability of transmission between hosts, suggesting that the necessity to achieve transmission is a prominent selective pressure in the evolution of this phenomenon. Some evidence suggests that digenean trematodes from the genus Schistosoma are also capable of limited developmental responses to host factors. Here we review the currently available data on this phenomenon and attempt to draw comparisons with similar processes in the life cycles of other helminths. At present the biological significance of developmental responses by schistosomes under laboratory conditions remains unclear. Further work is needed to determine whether developmental plasticity plays any role in increasing the probability of schistosome transmission and life cycle propagation under adverse conditions, as it does in other helminth life cycles. (C) 2003 Australian Society for Parasitology Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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