Helobdella Robusta
''Helobdella robusta'' is a leech of the family ''Glossiphoniidae''. Its genome has been sequenced by the Joint Genome Institute The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), first located in Walnut Creek then Berkeley, California, was created in 1997 to unite the expertise and resources in genome mapping, DNA sequencing, technology development, and i ..., and its early development has been studied extensively. ''Helobdella'' leeches called "''H. robusta''" in literature may not all be from the same species, though they are closely related. At least two species originally termed ''H. robusta'' are present at the same locality, the Sacramento River at the Sacramento Fairgrounds. Another closely related leech is now called ''Helobdella sp. (Austin)''.Kuo, D and Weisblat, DA (2011). "Intermediate filament genes as differentiation markers in the leech Helobdella". ''Development Genes and Evolution'' 221:225=240 References Leeches Animals described in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Leech
Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms that comprise the subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida. They are closely related to the oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular segmented bodies that can lengthen and contract. Both groups are hermaphrodites and have a clitellum, but leeches typically differ from the oligochaetes in having suckers at both ends and in having ring markings that do not correspond with their internal segmentation. The body is muscular and relatively solid, and the coelom, the spacious body cavity found in other annelids, is reduced to small channels. The majority of leeches live in freshwater habitats, while some species can be found in terrestrial or marine environments. The best-known species, such as the medicinal leech, ''Hirudo medicinalis'', are hematophagous, attaching themselves to a host with a sucker and feeding on blood, having first secreted the peptide hirudin to prevent the blood from c ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Glossiphoniidae
Glossiphoniidae are a family of freshwater proboscis-bearing leeches. These leeches are generally flattened, and have a poorly defined anterior sucker. Most suck the blood of freshwater vertebrates like amphibians, crocodilians and aquatic turtles, but some feed on invertebrates like oligochaetes and freshwater snails instead. Although they prefer other hosts, blood-feeding species will opportunistically feed from humans. There is considerable interest in the symbiotic bacteria that at least some glossiphoniids house in specialized organs called bacteriomes. The bacteria are thought to provide the leeches with nutrients that are scarce or absent from their regular diets. '' Haementeria'' as well as '' Placobdelloides'' have Enterobacteriaceae symbionts, while '' Placobdella'' harbours peculiar and independently derived alphaproteobacteria. Systematics and taxonomy The relationships between members of Glossiphoniidae are not completely understood. Some sources divide the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Joint Genome Institute
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), first located in Walnut Creek then Berkeley, California, was created in 1997 to unite the expertise and resources in genome mapping, DNA sequencing, technology development, and information sciences pioneered at the DOE genome centers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). As a DOE Office of Science User Facility of Berkeley Lab, the JGI staff is composed of employees from Berkeley Lab, LLNL and the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. The JGI also collaborates with other DOE-supported programs and facilities, such as the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, or NERSC, and the DOE Bioenergy Research Centers. History In 1999, the University of California, which manages the three national labs for ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Leeches
Leeches are segmented parasitism, parasitic or Predation, predatory worms that comprise the Class (biology), subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida. They are closely related to the Oligochaeta, oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular segmented bodies that can lengthen and contract. Both groups are hermaphrodites and have a clitellum, but leeches typically differ from the oligochaetes in having suckers at both ends and in having ring markings that do not correspond with their internal segmentation. The body is muscular and relatively solid, and the coelom, the spacious body cavity found in other annelids, is reduced to small channels. The majority of leeches live in freshwater habitats, while some species can be found in terrestrial or marine environments. The best-known species, such as the medicinal leech, ''Hirudo medicinalis'', are hematophagous, attaching themselves to a host with a sucker and feeding on blood, having first secr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |