Nathalie Dinguirard

TL;DR: Parts of phero-perception, stress responses, immune function and regulation of gene expression that support the persistence of B. glabrata are described and several potential targets for developing novel control measures aimed at reducing snail-mediated transmission of schistosomiasis are identified.

TL;DR: The findings that rBgGal selectively recognizes the schistosome-related sugar, lacNAc, and strongly binds to hemocytes and the tegument of S. mansoni sporocysts in a sugar-inhibitable fashion suggest that hemocyte-bound galectin may be serving as a pattern recognition receptor for this, or other pathogens possessing appropriate sugar ligands.

TL;DR: Although RNAi holds great promise as a functional genomics tool for larval schistosomes, the finding of potential off-target or nonspecific effects of some dsRNA treatments and variable efficiencies in specific gene knockdown indicate a critical need for gene-specific testing and optimization in experimental design, execution and data interpretation.

TL;DR: Inhibition of sporocyst growth indicates a potential involvement of this SR homologue in some aspect of larval growth and/or development and the functional linkage of acLDL binding to the cloned SRB-like S. mansoni gene using RNA interference suggests a possible role of the tegumental SRB -like protein as a receptor for modified LDL.

TL;DR: The hypothesis that endogenous expression and regulation of larval antioxidant enzymes serve a direct role in protection against external oxidative stress, including immune-mediated cytotoxic reactions, is strongly supported.