When predator becomes prey: investigating the salivary transcriptome of the shark-feeding leechPontobdella macrothela(Hirudinea: Piscicolidae)

New host and distribution record of Pontobdella macrothela (Schmarda, 1861) (Annelida, Hirudinea) from a Grey Reef Shark, Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos (Bleeker, 1856), in Mozambique, Western Indian Ocean

“…As such, information that adds to the limited knowledge of parasitic species, their range and hosts is important and relevant for conservation management. In particular, little is known on the life history of piscicolid species; however, an increasing interest in piscicolid phylogenetics and anticoagulants have greatly added to the knowledge of marine leeches (Utevsky et al 2004, Williams and Burreson 2006, Kvist et al 2016, Tessler et al 2018.…”

“…The marine leeches of the family Piscicolidae are the only annelids known to parasitize elasmobranchs (Caira and Healy 2004). There are 23 known species of piscicolid leeches adapted to feed on the high-urea content of elasmobranchs, all of which are proboscis-bearing ectoparasites that inhabit exterior sites of their hosts such as fins and claspers as well as orifices such as the mouth (Llewellyn 1966, Caira and Healy 2004, Kvist et al 2016. Pontobdella macrothela (Schmarda, 1861) has a widespread distribution in the warm waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans (Sawyer et al 1975, Burreson andPassarelli 2015) with at least 20 known elasmobranch hosts (Caira and Healy 2004, Yamauchi et al 2008, Pollerspöck and Straube 2015, Daly et al 2019.…”

Analysis of codon usage patterns in Hirudinaria manillensis reveals a preference for GC-ending codons caused by dominant selection constraints

“…Many previous studies have examined the molecular mechanisms and identified several functional genes in different types of leeches [16,18,[39][40][41]. The genes that encode hirudin, heparin, bdelin, and eglin have been characterised and are well known as typical anticoagulant-related sequences in medical leeches [39][40][41].…”

“…An adult H. manillensis may consume more than 10 ml of blood per host and can cause substantial and ongoing pain. Even after the leech abandons the host, this pain can persist as bleeding continues due to the anticoagulants (e.g., hirudin) secreted by the salivary glands of the leech [14][15][16]. The remarkable anticoagulant characteristics of H. manillensis secreted proteins have attracted much interest and the animal is considered a useful model for designing natural coagulation inhibitors and anticoagulant drugs [15,17,18].…”

Marine Leech Anticoagulant Diversity and Evolution

“…Specifically, piscicolids typically feed on fishes (cartilaginous and non-cartilaginous), whereas ozobranchids feed on turtles (Williams and Burreson, 2006;Utevsky et al, 2007;McGowin et al, 2011). Whereas Kvist et al (2016) surveyed the anticoagulants found in the salivary transcriptome of the marine piscicolid Pontobdella macrothela (to date, the only survey of a piscicolid), Ozobranchids, which appear to be sister to piscicolids (Apakupakul et al, 1999), have not been surveyed for these loci. Piscicolids and ozobranchids also may differ in the number of anticoagulants they transcribe, given that they show differences in their host preference and that preliminary work has suggested that leeches lacking host specificity transcribe a greater diversity of these loci (Kvist et al, 2014(Kvist et al, , 2016.…”