Comparative genomic and functional insights into life-cycle plasticity and host adaptation in a wild Nippostrongylus brasiliensis strain from Guangzhou

Description

Pan and collaborators characterized a wild rat hookworm isolate from Guangzhou that behaves unlike laboratory reference strains, hoping its genome reveals how these parasites adjust their life cycle to different hosts. The isolate keeps high egg output for 10 days and persists 21 days in rats, twice the reference lifespan. Yet in mice it survives just 10 to 11 days, with worse tissue damage.

Its genome proved 92.6 to 93.3 percent identical to public reference assemblies in the whole-genome comparison performed. Strain-specific gene groups spotlighted digestive astacin enzymes and four collagens switched on only in parasitic larval stages, two of them working harder in mouse-derived worms than rat-derived ones. Silencing one collagen gene, col-117l16, cut worm burdens by 77.2 percent, impaired reproduction, softened lesions, and disrupted the adult cuticle and gut positioning in treated infections. The authors present these as candidate host-adaptation genes needing controlled validation.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13455165