[Expression of genes encoding defense factors in the snail Planorbarius corneus (Gastropoda, Pulmonata) infested with...

Because many species of gastropods are intermediate hosts for trematodes, these molluscs are often used as model-organisms in the studies of invertebrate immune system. Revealing of the ways in which the defense factors functioning became possible due to the use of the methods of molecular biology. Contemporary molecular methods allow analyzing the defense factors allocations and levels of their expression. We investigated the expression of genes encoding defense factors in gastropods by the example of the snail Planorbarius corneus from water bodies of the Leningrad Oblast under infestation with trematods. The snails naturally infested with the parthenites of trematode species belonging to the families Strigeidae, Notocotylidae, Plagiorchiidae, and Schistosomatida were used as the experimental sample. Uninfested snails were used as a control sample. Several genes encoding the factors, which have been recently found involved in the anti-trematode defense reactions in pulmonates, were chosen, namely fibrinogen-related protein, C-lectin, calcium-binding protein, and cystatin-like protein. The genes' expression was analyzed on total mRNA samples by the reverse transcription with the polymerase chain reaction. It was shown than expression levels of the genes under consideration are different in uninfested snails and in the snails infested with different trematode species. Thus, in the mollusks infested with the parthenites of Cotylurus sp. and Bilharziella polonica, the expression levels of the genes of all factors under study were increased, while in the infested Notocotylus sp. n Plagiorchis sp., only expression levels of C-lectin and cystatin-like protein were increased. Results of the expression analysis confirm the role of hemocytes and cells of hepatopancreas in the production of humoral defense factors. In the snails infested with trematodes, the expression levels of C-lectin and calcium-binding protein genes are increased in haemocytes, while the genes of fibrinogen-related and cystatin-like proteins are activated in the hepatopancreas. Our data also confirm the role of the factors examined in the anti-trematode defense reactions in pulmonates.