Advances in molecular tools for parasitic nematodes of animals - From genetic markers to metabarcoding and genomics.

Parasitic nematodes are globally important pathogens of animals, humans and plants. The accurate identification and characterisation of these nematodes are essential for diagnostics, systematics and epidemiological surveillance. Over the past decades, molecular technologies have progressed from targeted PCR-based assays using nuclear ribosomal markers - particularly the first and second internal transcribed spacers (ITS-1 and ITS-2) - to high-throughput metabarcoding and genome-enabled approaches.

MUSIC-GCN: A Novel Multi-Tasking Pipeline for Analyzing Single-Cell Transcriptomic Data Using Residual Graph Convolution Network.

Single-cell transcriptomics is a powerful approach for characterizing gene transcription at cellular resolution. This approach requires efficient computational pipelines to undertake essential tasks, including clustering, dimensionality reduction, imputation, and denoising. Currently, most such pipelines undertake these computational tasks separately without considering the interdependence among these tasks.

Population structure, gene flow and genetic diversity of sheep blowfly (Lucilia cuprina dorsalis) in Australia.

Background: Flystrike (cutaneous myiasis) is caused by blowfly larvae of the genus Lucilia. This disease is a major obstacle to sustainable global sheep and wool production. Flystrike control relies primarily on breech modification surgery (mulesing) and insecticidal treatment; however, control is constantly compromised by the emergence and spread of insecticide-resistance.

Anthelmintic Potential of Agelasine Alkaloids from the Australian Marine Sponge .

A recent high-throughput screening of the NatureBank marine extract library (7616 samples) identified an extract from the Australian marine sponge with in vitro activity against an economically important parasitic nematode, (barber's pole worm). The bioassay-guided fractionation of the CHCl/MeOH extract from led to the purification of a new diterpene alkaloid, agelasine Z (), together with two known compounds agelasine B () and oxoagelasine B (). Brominated compounds (-)-mukanadin C () and 4-bromopyrrole-2-carboxylic acid () were also isolated from neighbouring UV-active fractions.

Chromosome-Contiguous Reference Genome for to Underpin Future Discovery Research.

Sparganosis is a neglected food- and water-borne zoonotic disease caused by members of the tapeworm genus . More than 1600 human cases have been reported in the literature, primarily in Korea and China; however, the clinical significance of sparganosis is likely underestimated. The control of this disease is challenging in endemic regions because of the complexity of its lifecycle and the involvement of many animal host species, and treatment of clinical disease in humans and animals with selected drugs (e.

The nematode family Cloacinidae (Strongyloidea), parasites of Australasian kangaroos, wallabies and wombats: from morphology and ecology to molecules.

The nematode parasites of Australasian macropodoid and vombatoid marsupials (kangaroos, wallabies and wombats) comprise a variety of endemic species, dominated by members of the superfamily Strongyloidea. Thus far, more than 300 species of strongyloid nematodes have been described from the gastrointestinal tracts of macropodoid (kangaroos, wallabies, rat-kangaroos and potoroos) and vombatoid (wombats) marsupials. These nematodes belong to the family Cloacinidae which is subdivided into two subfamilies, the Cloacininae and Phascolostrongylinae.

Bayesian latent class analyses show that serological testing outperforms conventional diagnostic methods for the detection of Ascaris in (individual) pigs.

This study employed Bayesian latent class analyses to estimate the diagnostic accuracy of faecal egg count (FEC), milk spot detection and the ELISA for detection of Ascaris suum using matched samples from individual pigs in Australia. A total of 251 blood, faecal and liver samples were collected from finisher pigs from four Victorian pig farms. Matched samples (n = 189) were used to compare the three diagnostic tests.

Chromosome-Contiguous Reference Genome from a Single Archived Specimen Elucidates Human Hookworm Biology and Host-Parasite Interactions.

Soil-transmitted helminths (STHs) are parasitic nematodes that infect humans, particularly in tropical and subtropical regions, where they contribute substantially to neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Among them, hookworms (, and ) cause substantial morbidity, leading to anaemia, malnutrition, and developmental impairment. Despite the global impact of hookworm disease, genomic research on has lagged behind that of other hookworms, limiting comparative and molecular biological investigations.

Comparative genomic analysis of necrophagous and parasitic subspecies of Lucilia cuprina (Diptera: Calliphoridae) provides important insight into their divergent biologies.

Lucilia cuprina, a species of blowfly, consists of two recognized subspecies: L. cuprina cuprina and L. cuprina dorsalis.

High Prevalence and Genetic Heterogeneity of in Smallholder Bovine Populations of Pakistan, and Its Implications.

Bovine anaplasmosis, caused by , is a major tick-borne disease in tropical and subtropical regions of the world, leading to significant production losses. Prolonged convalescence periods are common and surviving animals often become subclinical carriers. This study aimed to detect and characterise A.

New derivatives of benzhydroxamic acid with nematocidal activity against Haemonchus contortus and Caenorhabditis elegans.

Parasitic nematodes cause a wide range of diseases in animals, including humans. However, the efficacy of existing anthelmintic drugs, commonly used to treat these infections, is waning due to the increasing prevalence of drug resistance in nematode populations. This growing challenge underscores the urgent need to discover and develop novel nematocidal drugs that target new molecular pathways.

Advances in Anthelmintic Target Identification.

Parasitic nematodes pose a significant threat to human and animal health, causing widespread morbidity and substantial socioeconomic losses globally. Despite the utility of anthelmintic drugs in parasite control, the emergence of widespread resistance necessitates the discovery of novel interventions. Advances through the use of whole-organism phenotypic screening have identified some promising nematocidal compounds, including nemacol, tolfenpyrad, UMW-9729, and ABX464.

Prediction and Prioritisation of Novel Anthelmintic Candidates from Public Databases Using Deep Learning and Available Bioactivity Data Sets.

The control of socioeconomically important parasitic roundworms (nematodes) of animals has become challenging or ineffective due to problems associated with widespread resistance in these worms to most classes of chemotherapeutic drugs (anthelmintics) currently available. Thus, there is an urgent need to discover and develop novel compounds with unique mechanisms of action to underpin effective parasite control programmes. Here, we evaluated an in silico (computational) approach to accelerate the discovery of new anthelmintics against the parasitic nematode (barber's pole worm) as a model system.

Dirofilaria asiatica sp. nov. (Spirurida: Onchocercidae) - Defined using a combined morphological-molecular approach.

Parasitic nematodes of the family Onchocercidae (superfamily Filarioidea) have evolved alongside vertebrate hosts for millions of years. While morphological methods have played a central role in identifying species, many taxa remain cryptic and are challenging to differentiate, complicating diagnosis and the understanding of their epidemiology. Among the clinically relevant genera are Onchocerca and Dirofilaria, the latter being responsible for illnesses such as heartworm disease in canines and rare zoonotic infections in humans.

scRCA: A Siamese network-based pipeline for annotating cell types using noisy single-cell RNA-seq reference data.

Accurate cell type annotation is fundamentally critical for single-cell sequencing (scRNA-seq) data analysis to provide insightful knowledge of tissue-specific cell heterogeneity and cell state transition tracking. Cell type annotation is usually conducted by comparative analysis with known data (i.e.

Human Alveolar Echinococcosis-A Neglected Zoonotic Disease Requiring Urgent Attention.

Alveolar echinococcosis (AE) in humans is caused by the larval (metacestode) stage of , commonly known as the 'fox tapeworm'. This disease predominantly targets the liver and has an invasive growth pattern, allowing it to spread to adjacent and distant tissues. Due to its gradual progression and tumour-like characteristics, early diagnosis and prompt intervention are crucial, particularly as there are currently no highly effective vaccines or chemotherapeutics against AE.

Systems biology of Haemonchus contortus - Advancing biotechnology for parasitic nematode control.

Parasitic nematodes represent a substantial global burden, impacting animal health, agriculture and economies worldwide. Of these worms, Haemonchus contortus - a blood-feeding nematode of ruminants - is a major pathogen and a model for molecular and applied parasitology research. This review synthesises some key advances in understanding the molecular biology, genetic diversity and host-parasite interactions of H.

Human dirofilariasis - A potentially significant nematode zoonosis in an era of climate change.

Dirofilariasis is a mosquito-borne zoonosis caused by several species of the genus Dirofilaria. This disease can manifest as nodular lesions in subcutaneous tissues, various structures of the eye, the lungs and/or visceral organs. The Dirofilaria species and the vectors responsible for transmitting infection differ among various geographical regions.

Human alveolar echinococcosis-global, regional, and national annual incidence and prevalence rates.

Background: Alveolar echinococcosis (AE) of humans is a disease caused by the larval (metacestode) stage of the 'fox tapeworm' Echinococcus multilocularis. AE primarily affects the liver and, like cancer, can spread to surrounding or distant organs. Its slow progression and resemblance to malignant tumours emphasise the critical importance of early detection and intervention, as there is no highly effective vaccine against AE.

Evaluation of Serum Supplementation on the Development of Larvae In Vitro and on Compound Screening Results.

A high-throughput platform for assessing the activity of synthetic or natural compounds on the motility and development of larvae has been established for identifying new anthelmintic compounds active against strongylid nematodes. This study evaluated the impact of serum supplementation on larval development, motility and survival in vitro and its implications for phenotypic compound screening. Of five blood components assessed, 7.

The developmental lipidome of Nippostrongylus brasiliensis.

Background: Nippostrongylus brasiliensis-a nematode of rodents-is commonly used as a model to study the immunobiology of parasitic nematodes. It is a member of the Strongylida-a large order of socioeconomically important parasitic nematodes of animals. Lipids are known to play essential roles in nematode biology, influencing cellular membranes, energy storage and/or signalling.

SCREEN: A Graph-based Contrastive Learning Tool to Infer Catalytic Residues and Assess Enzyme Mutations.

The accurate identification of catalytic residues contributes to our understanding of enzyme functions in biological processes and pathways. The increasing number of protein sequences necessitates computational tools for the automated prediction of catalytic residues in enzymes. Here, we introduce SCREEN, a graph neural network for the high-throughput prediction of catalytic residues via the integration of enzyme functional and structural information.