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Gastropod parasitic nematodes (Phasmarhabditis sp.) are attracted to hyaluronic acid in snail mucus by cGMP signalling

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2018

P. Andrus ,
O. Ingle ,
T. Coleman  and
R. Rae Open the ORCID record for R. Rae [Opens in a new window]
P. Andrus
Affiliation:
Liverpool John Moores University, School of Natural Sciences and Psychology, Byrom Street, Liverpool L33AF, UK
O. Ingle
Affiliation:
Liverpool John Moores University, School of Natural Sciences and Psychology, Byrom Street, Liverpool L33AF, UK
T. Coleman
Affiliation:
Liverpool John Moores University, School of Natural Sciences and Psychology, Byrom Street, Liverpool L33AF, UK
R. Rae*
Affiliation:
Liverpool John Moores University, School of Natural Sciences and Psychology, Byrom Street, Liverpool L33AF, UK
*
Author for correspondence: R. Rae, E-mail: r.g.rae@ljmu.ac.uk
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Abstract

Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita is a parasitic nematode of terrestrial gastropods that has been formulated into a biological control agent for farmers and gardeners to kill slugs and snails. In order to locate slugs it is attracted to mucus, faeces and volatile cues; however, there is no information about whether these nematodes are attracted to snail cues. It is also unknown how wild isolates of P. hermaphrodita or different Phasmarhabditis species behave when exposed to gastropod cues. Therefore, we investigated whether P. hermaphrodita (commercial and wild isolated strains), P. neopapillosa and P. californica were attracted to mucus from several common snail species (Cepaea nemoralis, Cepaea hortensis, Arianta arbustorum and Cornu aspersum). We also examined whether snails (C. aspersum) collected from different locations around the UK differed in their attractiveness to wild isolates of P. hermaphrodita. Furthermore, we also investigated what properties of snail mucus the nematodes were attracted to, including hyaluronic acid and metal salts (FeSO4, ZnSO4, CuSO4 and MgSO4). We found that the commercial strain of P. hermaphrodita responded poorly to snail mucus compared to wild isolated strains, and C. aspersum collected from different parts of the UK differed in their attractiveness to the nematodes. We found that Phasmarhabditis nematodes were weakly attracted to all metals tested but were strongly attracted to hyaluronic acid. In a final experiment we also showed that pharmacological manipulation of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) increased chemoattraction to snail mucus, suggesting that the protein kinase EGL-4 may be responsible for Phasmarhabditis sp. chemoattraction.

Keywords

chemotaxisEGL-4gastropodshyaluronic acidnematodesparasites
Type
Research Paper
Information
Journal of Helminthology , Volume 94 , 2020 , e9
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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