Genetic mechanisms of snail/schistosome compatibility

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Schistosomiasis is by far the most important helminth parasitic disease of humans. Vaccines are unavailable, the only effective treatment involves repeated dosing with a single drug, and drug resistance is now a major concern. Schistosomes require aquatic snails for transmission. Mass drug administration alone has proven ineffective at eliminating schistosomiasis. It is now widely accepted that an integrated approach that includes targeting the snail stage is essential. Yet current snail control strategies are unsustainable, involving toxic chemicals or introduced predators or competitors. New approaches are needed to break transmission at the snail stage. Understanding the molecular mechanisms by which snails and schistosomes interact is key for finding new strategies to interrupt transmission. Yet knowledge about molluscan immunology is far from adequate, and decades of painstaking research on the molecular basis of snail-schistosome compatibility have yielded just a handful of candidate genes and mechanisms. BS90 is a highly resistant strain of Biomphalaria glabrata (Bg) that, until recently, was considered completely resistant to all known strains of Schistosoma mansoni (Sm). BS90 has been the subject of many functional studies of why it is so resistant to infection by Sm. So finding the genes behind that trait would be a major advance. We recently determined that two genomic regions we previously discovered using another snail population are involved, and that one or more additional loci still need to be mapped. One strain of Sm can infect some BS90 snails, but there is genetic variation within the outbred BS90 population for susceptibility. In preliminary work we found that a gene in, or linked to, a region we named PTC2 is involved in this resistance polymorphism. The susceptible haplotype appears to act dominantly, suggesting that some molecule on the parasite side must bind to something on the host side to evade the host immune response. Thus, finding the snail protein involved could lead to a key ligand used by schistosomes to defeat the Bg immune response. We will use a combination of GWAS and QTL mapping approaches to narrow down (1) the remaining genomic regions in BS90 snails that make them more resistant to Sm than other populations of snails, and (2) the region/s that control susceptibility to the one strain of Sm that can infect BS90. We will annotate and rank candidate genes within each region (based on predicted function and on sequence or expression difference between haplotypes). Then test candidate genes using RNAi and/or CRISPR knock-out lines. Identifying new resistance genes will substantially advance our knowledge of snail-schistosome immunology. We hope to eventually be able to genetically manipulate natural snail populations to make them less able to transmit schistosomes. Identifying key resistance genes and characterizing their function will be an essential first step toward that goal.