Transcriptomic effects on schistosome miracidia due to tissue tropism in the definitive host

Schistosoma mansoni adults reside in the mesenteric vasculature of rodent lab models. Female lay eggs that must travel against the flow of blood to the intestine in order to continue the parasite life cycle, but many travel with blood to the liver, which is a dead end. Liver-derived eggs are used in the lab to study miracidia (the larva that hatches from eggs) or maintain the life cycle in the lab. Evidence suggest mature eggs deriving from the liver or intestine have transcriptomic and antigenic differences. This study extends these previous results by sequencing the transcriptomes of miracidia hatched from eggs from different tissue sources.