The genomes of four tapeworm species reveal adaptations to parasitism
By Isheng. J. Tsai, M. Zarowiecki, Nancy E. Holroyd, A. Garcíarrubio, A. Sánchez-Flores, K. Brooks, A. Tracey, R. Bobes, G. Fragoso, E. Sciutto and 42 more. Nature, 2013
643 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Tapeworms (Cestoda) cause neglected diseases that can be fatal and are difficult to treat, owing to inefficient drugs. Here we present an analysis of tapeworm genome sequences using the human-infective species Echinococcus multilocularis, E. granulosus, Taenia solium and the laboratory model Hymenolepis microstoma as examples. The 115- to 141-megabase genomes offer insights into the evolution of parasitism. Synteny is maintained with distantly related blood flukes but we find extreme losses of genes and pathways that are ubiquitous in other animals, including 34 homeobox families and several determinants of stem cell fate. Tapeworms have specialized detoxification pathways, metabolism that is finely tuned to rely on nutrients scavenged from their hosts, and species-specific expansions of non-canonical heat shock proteins and families of known antigens. We identify new potential drug targets, including some on which existing pharmaceuticals may act. The genomes provide a rich resource to underpin the development of urgently needed treatments and control.
Subfields: Ecology, Parasitology, Pathology and Forensic Medicine
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2f7d520ff9ee60f922bd14d8039dac09f1fc1490
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Citations in the corpus
- Echinococcosis: Advances in the 21st Century (2019, background): “multilocularis (262) has revealed other key features associated with parasitism, including a description of a number of domain families gained during the course of evolution.”
- Planetary Biodiversity Inventory (2008–2017): Tapeworms from Vertebrate Bowels of the Earth (2017, background): “Preliminary results of molecular phylogenetic analyses (Waeschenbach et al., accepted) indicate that both Diplogonoporus and Diphyllobothrium are polyphyletic, the latter genus comprising at least three separate lineages. Further taxonomic revisions of the order, and especially of Diphyllobothrium, ”