Scientists sequence genome of snail linked to schistosomiasis

A group of 118 researchers from 11 countries—15 of whom from Brazil—working at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Minas Gerais (Fiocruz Minas), finished sequencing the genome of the Biomphalaria glabrata, the snail that acts as the intermediary host to the worm that causes schistosomiasis. The disease afflicts some 240 million people across the globe.

This snail species is nature's best host, said researcher Omar dos Santos Carvalho, from Fiocriz Minas's Helminthology and Malacology Group (HMM). He is a member of the team that conducted the study.

According to Carvalho, this species can be found everywhere in Brazil where schistosomiasis is reported, due to its distribution and susceptibility to the parasite. Making its genome available to the scientific community will help researchers work with the genes in this genome and control the snail, so it can become resistant to the infection of the Schistosoma mansoni, which carries the disease.

The research work was published in international scientific journal Nature Communications. Over 50 articles have been published with the data from this study, which lasted 15 years, Carvalho said.

Omar Carvalho went on to say that any researcher in the world may now have access to the sequenced genome of this snail and use it in other research studies. “After it's published, it becomes part of the public domain,” he noted.

Schistosomiasis

Recent data collected by specialist Naftale Katz, coordinator of the National Inquiry into the Prevalence of Schistosomiasis and Soil Helminthiasis, of the Health Ministry, show that 1.5 million people may be infected with the Schistosoma mansoni. Carvalho said that Katz's work reveals that Brazil's infected population reduced considerably due to such factors as sanitation in a number of regions, and new medicines that became available.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira