Effect of trematode infection on cardiac activity of marine gastropod Littorina littorea in situ and under laboratory conditions.

Physiological mechanisms underlying relationships between the trematode parthenitae and their molluscan hosts are poorly understood. In this study, we estimated the cardiac function of gastropods Littorina littorea L. infected with Himasthla elongata and Cryptocotyle lingua under laboratory conditions and in situ.

No time to relax: Age-dependent infectivity of cercariae in marine coastal ecosystems.

Age dynamics of the ability of cercariae of two digenean species, (Himasthlidae) and (Renicolidae), to infect the second intermediate host (SIH), mussels (), was investigated experimentally. This is the first study of this kind made on cercariae transmitted in the intertidal of the northern seas. The larvae of all tested ages (from 0.

Transposons-Based Clonal Diversity in Trematode Involves Parts of CR1 (LINE) in Eu- and Heterochromatin.

Trematode parthenitae have long been believed to form clonal populations, but clonal diversity has been discovered in this asexual stage of the lifecycle. Clonal polymorphism in the model species has been previously described, but the source of this phenomenon remains unknown. In this work, we traced cercarial clonal diversity using a simplified amplified fragment length polymorphism (SAFLP) method and characterised the nature of fragments in diverse electrophoretic bands.

A month for the mission: using a sentinel approach to determine the transmission window of digenean cercariae in the subarctic White Sea.

In the digenean life cycle the cercaria ensures an important transmission stage, from the first intermediate host to the second or the definitive host. In regions with pronounced seasonality, this process occurs within a certain interval, the transmission window. In high latitudes, the size of transmission window has previously been determined only by comparing data on seasonal dynamics of infection level in various categories of hosts or extrapolating the results of laboratory experiments on cercarial biology to natural conditions.

Reduced infectivity in (Trematoda, Himasthlidae) cercariae with deviant photoreaction.

Digenean larvae of hermaphroditic generation - cercariae - are known to be polymorphic at genetic and behavioural levels. Cercariae arise as a result of parthenogenetic reproduction of intramolluscan stages, and represent a clone if a snail was infected with a single miracidium. Here we investigated cercarial clones of Himasthla elongata - namely, the infectivity of cercariae with normal (negative) and deviant (positive) photoreaction.