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Snail-snaily-snails
They're slimy, they're small, and they're slow. Some call them pests, and some call them a delicacy. What are they? Snails! Kids will learn all about these crawly creatures in this fact-and-photo-filled nonfiction reader.
Book
Snail
Introduces the physical characteristics, diet, life cycle, predators, and habitat of snails.
Book
Hologenome analysis reveals dual symbiosis in the deep-sea hydrothermal vent snail Gigantopelta aegis
Animals endemic to deep-sea hydrothermal vents often form obligatory symbioses with bacteria, maintained by intricate host–symbiont interactions. Most genomic studies on holobionts have not investigated both sides to similar depths. Here, we report dual symbiosis in the peltospirid snail
Gigantopelta aegis
with two gammaproteobacterial endosymbionts: a sulfur oxidiser and a methane oxidiser. We assemble high-quality genomes for all three parties, including a chromosome-level host genome. Hologenomic analyses reveal mutualism with nutritional complementarity and metabolic co-dependency, highly versatile in transporting and using chemical energy.
Gigantopelta aegis
likely remodels its immune system to facilitate dual symbiosis. Comparisons with
Chrysomallon squamiferum
, a confamilial snail with a single sulfur-oxidising gammaproteobacterial endosymbiont, show that their sulfur-oxidising endosymbionts are phylogenetically distant. This is consistent with previous findings that they evolved endosymbiosis convergently. Notably, the two sulfur-oxidisers share the same capabilities in biosynthesising nutrients lacking in the host genomes, potentially a key criterion in symbiont selection.
Symbiotic partners are rarely studied in equal depth. By assembling new genomes, Lan
et al
. report a novel dual symbiosis in the snail
Gigantopelta aegis
with two evolutionarily distant gammaproteobacterial endosymbionts: one which oxidises sulfur, the other, methane in a metabolically mutualistic relationship.
Journal Article
The biggest house in the world
A snail's father advises him to keep his house small and tells him what happened to a snail that grew a large and spectacular shell.
Book
Novel insights into the glucose metabolic alterations of freshwater snails: a pathway to molluscicide innovation and snail control strategies
As ecosystem disruptors and intermediate hosts for various parasites, freshwater snails have significant socioeconomic impacts on human health, livestock production, and aquaculture. Although traditional molluscicides have been widely used to mitigate these effects, their environmental impact has encouraged research into alternative, biologically based strategies to create safer, more effective molluscicides and diminish the susceptibility of snails to parasites. This review focuses on alterations in glucose metabolism in snails under the multifaceted stressors of parasitic infections, drug exposure, and environmental changes and proposes a novel approach for snail management. Key enzymes within the glycolytic pathway, such as hexokinase and pyruvate kinase; tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle; and electron transport chains, such as succinate dehydrogenase and cytochrome c oxidase, are innovative targets for molluscicide development. These targets can affect both snails and parasites and provide an important direction for parasitic disease prevention research. For the first time, this review summarises the reverse TCA cycle and alternative oxidase pathway, which are unique metabolic bypasses in invertebrates that have emerged as suitable targets for the formulation of low-toxicity molluscicides. Additionally, it highlights the importance of other metabolic pathways, including lactate, alanine, glycogenolysis, and pentose phosphate pathways, in snail energy supply, antioxidant stress responses, and drug evasion mechanisms. By analysing the alterations in key metabolic enzymes and their products in stressed snails, this review deepens our understanding of glucose metabolic alterations in snails and provides valuable insights for identifying new pharmacological targets.
Journal Article
Conches
Conches are sea snails with eyestalks and feet. There are about 50 different species of conches. Underwater photographs show conches in their natural habitats. The life cycle and adaptations of these marine creatures are explained in accessible language.
Book
Complexity of schistosome vector bulinine snails in Kenya: Insights from nuclear genome size variation, complete mitochondrial genome sequence, and morphometric analysis
Investigations of nuclear genome size, complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) sequence, and morphometrics were conducted on specimens of Bulinus snails (Gastropoda: Planorbidae) collected from 14 locations across the east coast, central Kenya, and western Kenya around the Lake Victoria region (November 2013 and January 2024). Flow cytometry measurements of DNA content (C-value) revealed unexpected variation in nuclear genome size, with diploid Bulinus africanus and B. forskalii species groups showing C-values ranging from 0.76 to 1.98 pg, while tetraploid B. truncatus had a C-value of 1.82 pg. Additionally, C-values for six B. globosus specimens from different localities ranged from 1.43 to 1.98 pg. These findings suggest that bulinine snails, particularly the B. africanus species group, have undergone genome expansion, whole genome duplication (polyploidization), or both, which have not been previously recognized. Next-generation sequencing was performed to determine and annotate 14 complete mitogenome sequences. Despite the well-conserved arrangement of protein-coding genes, two versions of mtDNA genome structure, distinguished by the tRNA-D (Asp) location, were found, designated as DCF (Asp-Cys-Phe) type (in the B. forskalii group and the B. truncatus / tropicus complex) and CF (Cys-Phe) type (in the B. africanus group). Phylogenetic analyses based on complete mtDNA sequences of bulinines from Kenya, along with cytochrome c oxidase subunit I ( COX1 ) sequences from various localities across Africa, contributed to resolving species identities and provided further support for the presence of multiple or cryptic species in the taxon B. globosus . A landmark-based morphometric analysis was ineffective in distinguishing these species. This study reveals unexpected nuclear genome size variation, provides new mitogenome sequences, and highlights the limitations of morphological analysis. It offers valuable insights into the cytogenetics, polyploidy, genomics, taxonomy, and evolution of bulinines, which serve as intermediate hosts for schistosomes responsible for human urogenital schistosomiasis and intestinal schistosomiasis in domestic and wild mammals.
Journal Article