The hemolymph of Biomphalaria snail vectors of schistosomiasis supports a diverse microbiome

• Published in: bioRxiv
• Main Authors: Chevalier, Frédéric D, Diaz, Robbie, Mcdew-White, Marina, Anderson, Timothy Jc, Winka Le Clec’h
• Format: Paper
• Language: English
• Published: Cold Spring Harbor Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press 10.09.2020
• Subjects: Bacteroidetes; Biomphalaria; Hemolymph; Microbiomes; Microorganisms; Mollusks; Proteobacteria; Schistosoma mansoni; Schistosomiasis; Vectors
• DOI: 10.1101/2020.04.22.056168

i.e. blood) of Biomphalaria snails, the intermediate host for Schistosoma mansoni, using Illumina MiSeq sequencing of the bacterial 16S V4 rDNA. We sampled hemolymph from 5 snails from 6 different laboratory populations of B. glabrata and one population of B. alexandrina. We observed 279.84 ± 0.79 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) per snail. There were significant differences in microbiome composition at the level of individual snails, snail populations and species. Snail microbiomes were dominated by Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes while water microbiomes from snail tank were dominated by Actinobacteria. We investigated the absolute bacterial load using qPCR: hemolymph samples contained 2,784 ± 339 bacteria per μL. We speculate that the microbiome may represent a critical, but unexplored intermediary in the snail-schistosome interaction as hemolymph is in very close contact to the parasite at each step of its development. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Footnotes * Author information: * Frédéric D. Chevalier: fcheval{at}txbiomed.org * Robbie Diaz: robbied{at}txbiomed.org * Marina McDew-White: mwhite{at}txbiomed.org * Timothy JC. Anderson: tanderso{at}txbiomed.org * Winka Le Clec’h: winkal{at}txbiomed.org * Main updates: * Demonstration of bacterial contamination removal from the snail shell * Unassigned ASV screened for eukaryote contaminants * b-diversity analysis revised