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The Schistosoma mansoni host-interactive tegument forms from vesicle eruptions of a cyton network

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2002

P. J. SKELLY
Affiliation:
Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
C. B. SHOEMAKER
Affiliation:
Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA

Abstract

During trans-dermal invasion of the vertebrate host, larval schistosomes (cercariae) transform into schistosomula and become enveloped by a double lipid bilayered, tegumental membrane. The glucose transporter protein SGTP4 is found exclusively in these host-interactive tegumental membranes and in membranous vesicles proposed to be their precursor. In this study, we monitored the appearance and migration of this tegumental marker protein during larval transformation to test the current model of tegumental membrane biosynthesis in parasitic blood flukes. Only minutes after transformation was initiated, SGTP4 began accumulating in a previously unrecognized, bilaterally symmetrical, ‘cyton network’ beneath the peripheral muscle. Approximately 30min after the initiation of transformation the marker protein was seen in tubules connecting the network to the surface and erupting onto the surface in discrete patches. After 1h the patches were regularly arrayed over the schistosomula body and began to cover the anterior organ. By 3h the staining has largely resolved into a contiguous layer of fluorescence covering most of the worm surface. These findings confirm earlier suggestions, based on electron microscopy, that the parasite's surface tegumental membranes are derived from the migration of membranous vesicles produced within cytons and reveal a new subtegumental architecture interconnecting the cytons.

Type
Research article
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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