Lipids from a snail host regulate the multicellular behavior of a predator of parasitic schistosomes.

Transmission of vector-borne diseases can be slowed by symbionts within the secondary hosts that spread disease. Snails spread schistosomiasis, and the snail symbiont kills schistosome larvae. In studying how colonizes its host snail, we discovered that responded to its host by forming multicellular aggregates.

Exogenous lipid vesicles induce endocytosis-mediated cellular aggregation in a close unicellular relative of animals.

is a protozoan that may both reveal aspects of animal evolution and also curtail the spread of schistosomiasis, a neglected tropical disease. exhibits a chemically regulated aggregative behavior that resembles cellular aggregation in some animals. This behavior may have played a key role in the evolution of animal multicellularity.

Host lipids regulate multicellular behavior of a predator of a human pathogen.

As symbionts of animals, microbial eukaryotes benefit and harm their hosts in myriad ways. A model microeukaryote () is a symbiont of snails and may prevent transmission of parasitic schistosomes from snails to humans. However, it is unclear which host factors determine s ability to colonize snails.