Wormy snail

I have a fabulous undergrad who has a lot of experience with QIIME2 & using R to analyze microbiome data. She is looking for a job starting in January. Would love to learn more bench and field skills (will be getting some in her last 2 months). Open to academic, industry, government jobs in the US.

Using IPCRESS for electronic PCR, and parsing output Using IPCRESS for electronic PCR, and parsing output - In Silico PCR with IPCRESS.ipynb

ipcress is a great and simple tool for in silico PCR. it's pretty fast and can handle mismatches. Here is a gist from someone that have all relevant information: gist.github.com/cfljam/e0d11...

Save the dates!! @bspparasitology.bsky.social Spring Meeting 2026 will be in Bonnie Glasgow! 7-9 April 2026, with a drinks reception in Glasgow City Chambers on the 6th of April 2026!
Keep an eye on the BSP website for registration and abstract submission!
Logo by @shannaraeilean.bsky.social! 🦟

Brown sea coconut with yellow fibers between the two lobes of the coconut, going from the upper to the third of the length of the coconut. The coconut lays on a table.

Actually, it is also called "coco-fesses" in French (which literally means "butt coconut"). We have one in the family, with some suggestive fibers, very similar to the picture below (source: lodoiceamaldivica.wordpress.com/cocofesse/)

GSA logo and "Check out our Schisto Research Update Newsletter with research grants, funding and articles #StopSchisto

Work on #schistosomiasis #research? Check out our latest GSA Research Update newsletter with
- funding opportunities
- training and courses
- research highlights
- upcoming events
And more: us18.campaign-archive.com?u=e14ec03d13...

Side story: This paper wraps up Lauren’s work (@lvcarruthers on the other site) from her summer internship at @texasbiomed.bsky.social. Stephanie (@StephCara on the other site), former intern and former PhD student, also contributed. Congrats to Lauren, Stephanie, and all co-authors! 🎉

Overall, these results highlight the need to study microbiomes separately to avoid masking key changes and to better capture microbiome dynamics, especially during parasite infection 🦠🐌🪱. This will be the focus of an upcoming paper from Stephanie.

Boxplots showing 16S rRNA gene copy number (y-axis) per host cell (left panel) for stomach, gut, hepatopancreas, ovotestis, and whole snail, or per microliter (right panel) for hemolymph, tray water, and tank water. Biomphalaria alexandrina is shown in orange, B. glabrata in green, with boxplots of each species displayed side by side for each sample type.

How many bacteria are in these organs? We performed qPCR and normalized by cell number (organs, whole snails) or volume (hemolymph, water). The digestive system (stomach and gut) showed the highest density, while levels were more variable in the hepatopancreas and low in the ovotestis.

Two UpSet plots: the top one for Biomphalaria alexandrina, the bottom for Biomphalaria glabrata. Each plot is divided into three sections: the bottom left shows a horizontal barplot representing the number of amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) per sample type, the top right shows a vertical barplot representing the number of ASVs per intersction, and the bottom right is a dot plot displaying the specific intersections between sample types. Dot plot start with sample-type specific set (no intersection) then continue with increasing intersection between sample types to end with set that include all sample types. Sample type: hemolymph, stomach, gut, hepatopancreas, ovotestis, whole snail, tray water, tank water.

How are these taxa shared between organs? They are mostly sample-type specific, especially in the hemolymph and ovotestis. Hemolymph and whole snail share the most taxa. Some taxa are snail-specific, suggesting internal conditions favor them, while others are found in snails and water.

Taxonomic figure divided in three sections: taxonomic plot for Biomphalaria alexandrina (top), taxonomic plot for B. glabrata (middle), and a legend displayin phylum names (bottom). Taxonomic plots show the relative proportion (y axis) for each sample type (hemolymph, stomach, gut, hepatopancreas, ovotestis, whole snail, tray water, tank water).

Taxonomic diversity revealed a surprising number of unknown taxa in the hepatopancreas and ovotestis. These organ microbiomes warrant further study to characterize these mysterious taxa. Taxonomic diversity of the whole snail microbiomes was similar to the hemolymph microbiome diversity.

Four distance trees showing relationships between sample types (hemolymph, stomach, gut, hepatopancreas, ovotestis, whole snail, tray water, tank water). The two trees on the left display Unweighted and Weighted UniFrac distances for Biomphalaria alexandrina (Ba); the two on the right show the same for B. glabrata.

These organ microbiomes were different from the hemolymph, specific, and either linked by physical proximity or functionnality, depending on the beta-diversity metrics used. The whole snail microbiome was consistently close to the hemolymph microbiome.

Boxplots showing observed richness (y axis) by sample types (hemolymph, stomach, gut, hepatopancreas, ovotestis, whole snail, tray water, tank water). Biomphalaria alexandrina is in orange and B. glabrata in green, with boxplots of each species being side by side for each sample type.

Organs harbored microbiomes with varying microbial diversity. Hemolymph showed the highest alpha-diversity, similar to the whole snail microbiome. Sample type (organs and hemolymph) was the primary factor explaining microbial diversity before the snail species.

Experimental plan showing tanks of Biomphalaria glabrata and B. alexandrina snails, from which 7 snails per tank were sampled, fasted overnight, and then either dissected to obtain hemolymph, stomach, gut, hepatopancreas, and ovotestis, or snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen and ground into powder. Tank and fasting tray water were also sampled. Samples were used for DNA extractions.

We chose stomach/gut (commonly studied), hepatopancreas (liver), and ovotestis (targeted by schistosomes 🪱) from uninfected snails of 2 Biomphalaria species. We also analyzed whole-snail 🐌 microbiomes (commonly studied) to test if they truly reflect the composite of individual organ microbiomes.

The hemolymph of Biomphalaria snail vectors of schistosomiasis supports a diverse microbiome The microbiome - the microorganism community that is found on or within an organism's body - is increasingly recognized to shape many aspects of its host biology and is a key determinant of health an....

We showed a few years ago that the hemolymph (blood 🩸) of the Biomphalaria snails harbor a diverse microbiome (doi.org/10.1111/1462...). This finding prompted us to look at the organs bathed by the hemolymph and investigate if they had a microbiome and how specific it was compared to the hemolymph.

Organ-specific microbiomes of Biomphalaria snails - Animal Microbiome Background The microbiome is increasingly recognized to shape many aspects of its host biology and is a key determinant of health and disease. The microbiome may influence transmission of pathogens by...

📣 New paper: Organ-specific microbiomes of Biomphalaria snails

📋 Snails, vector of blood flukes, have specific microbe communities associated with their organs. Whole snail microbiome is not the true composite of these microbiomes. 🧵👇

Go get it: doi.org/10.1186/s425...

A late #NationalSnailDay 🧪

An infographic of snail anatomy and how to refer to different parts of the shell and body of the animal

Let's continue National Snail Day Shellebrations with the snails in short series, where I collaborated with @franzanth.bsky.social 🐌🦑 #nationalsnailday

first up some snail basics

YouTube video by Association of American Universities Facilities and Administrative (F&A) Costs Explainer

Make sure you, your trainees, and anyone else who might listen to you understands what "indirects" actually are, how they are established, and what Universities contribute. H/T @rodallab.bsky.social

Please share widely!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxTD...

As the Massif Central is a highland between the Alps and the Pyrenees, we more likely see the effect of both the Mistral wind (between the Alps and Massif Central) and the Tramontane wind (between the Massif Central and the Pyrenees).

Hi Erik!

Could you please add me to the Science feed? I am working on schistosome, snail and microbiome. This is me:
ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-26...
Webpage: www.txbiomed.org/scientists/f...

Thank you!

Time for an #introduction!

I'm a Staff Scientist at #TxBiomed working on:
• #schistosome blood fluke (drug resistance, host specificity, etc.) using #genetics and #genomics
• #microbiome 🦠 of snail 🐌 vectors of schistosomes

I do #bioinformatics 💻 using #bash, #R, and #python.

See y'all around!

This should be our next model organism. What a hell of a snail!

I did not know about the cult though. Should we start one with ours 🤔? We definitely have worms that can make people sick.

Anyway, thank you @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social for point this out to me.