''Biomphalaria straminea'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of air-breathing freshwater snail, an aquatic pulmonate gastropod

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Planorbidae, the

ram Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * ...

's horn snails. This snail is a medically important pest, because an intermediate host for the parasite '' Schistosoma mansoni'' and a

vector Vector most often refers to: *Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction *Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematic ...

of schistosomiasis. The history of these discoveries was summarized by Paraense (2001). The shell of this species, like all planorbids is sinistral in coiling, but is carried upside down and thus appears to be dextral.

Distribution

''Biomphalaria glabrata'' is a

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bioge ...

species. It occurs in: * Caribbean: Saint Lucia – reported since 1993 * northeast of

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

This species has recently expanded its native range. As an introduced species, it occurs in: *

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

and

Southern China South China () is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is that most of its citizens are not n ...

- firstly collected in 1973 in the

Lam Tsuen valley Lam Tsuen Valley () is situated in the New Territories, Hong Kong, west of Tai Po New Town. Lam Tsuen and other villages are located in the valley. The Lam Tsuen River The Lam Tsuen River () is a river in Tai Po District, Hong Kong, with a len ...

in Hong Kong, in has now been identified at a number of locations in

and Guangdong Province.

Phylogeny

To allow comparisons with other mollusc genomes, a high-quality genome assembly for ''B. straminea'' together with accompanying transcriptomes has been sequenced, producing a 1.005 Gb in size reference genome consisting of 36 chromosomes. A

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to ...

showing phylogenic relations of species in the genus ''Biomphalaria'':

Parasites

''Biomphalaria straminea'' is an intermediate host for '' Schistosoma mansoni'' and a

of intestinal schistosomiasis. ''Schistosoma mansoni'' came to Neotropics from Africa in context of the

slave trade Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

. ''Schistosoma mansoni'' was not able to infect ''Biomphalaria straminea'' previously and it has adapted to this host.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3285340 Biomphalaria Gastropods described in 1848

Distribution

Phylogeny

Parasites

References

Further reading

External links