Development of molecular tools in Lymnaea stagnalis, a model for trematode intermediate host snails

Flukes are a serious health and economic burden worldwide, a concern that continues to grow with climate change. Flukes, particularly those of veterinary relevance in Ireland and the UK, such as Fasciola hepatica, require a snail intermediate host essential to their life cycle.

Typically, the intermediate host is Galba truncatula, however it proves difficult to rear and lacks genomic resources or any significant published functional genomic work to date. Therefore, this project utilised Lymnaea stagnalis, a model snail which serves as host to as many as 100 trematode parasites. L. stagnalis also provides a published genome and a starting point for functional genomic work with literature of RNAi and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 available.