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SUMMARY:Chromatin structure changes are essential for development and evol
 ution of the human parasite Schistosoma mansoni - Prof Christoph Grunau\, 
 University of Perpignan Via Domitia
DTSTART:20200422T150000Z
DTEND:20200422T160000Z
UID:TALK138871@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Anna Protasio
DESCRIPTION:Intestinal schistosomiasis is a chronic parasitic disease caus
 ed by the trematode Schistosoma mansoni. At least 67 million people are in
 fected worldwide. The parasite has a complex life cycle which involve two 
 consecutive obligatory hosts and two transitions between these hosts as fr
 ee-swimming larvae\, being in each step\, a new environment to the parasit
 e. Male and female adult worms mature sexually only if in mutual physical 
 contact within the vertebrate host.\nThe interaction with each environment
  demands strict regulation of gene expression and depends on specific envi
 ronmental cues\, i.e. a multitude of signals from the environment\, such a
 s temperature\, pH\, osmolarity and chemical compounds\, and also signals 
 that come from the host\, in particular those that serve to recognise and 
 destroy them\, i.e. the immune system. This interaction shapes not only th
 e parasite’s morphology\, metabolism and behaviour in short-term\, but a
 lso its development into different phenotypes over the whole life cycle\, 
 i.e. subsequent stages that were not directly exposed to the environment. 
 This is because the developmental and evolutionary trajectories of schisto
 somes are based on an inheritance system being composed of the genome and 
 the epigenome\, which will conjointly interpret signals from the environme
 nt.\n\nWe show here how the epigenome\, represented by chromatin structure
 \, changes over the life cycle and through generations\, and discuss how e
 pigenetically mediated changes in the phenotype can be generated through m
 odifications in the environment. Immediate consequences of this approach a
 re (i) the development of epidrugs to arrest parasite development and (ii)
  the awareness that anthropogenic changes in the environment (e.g. control
  measures) can have rapid and direct and maybe undesired effect on parasit
 e evolution.  \n
LOCATION:Seminar Room\, Department of Pathology
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