Title: Evolutionary potential of the human parasite Schistosoma manosoni in a changing world
Supervisors: Dr. Tine Huyse, Dr. Katja Polman and Dr. Filip Volckaert
Lab 1: Laboratory of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Genomics, KU Leuven
Lab 2: Unit of Medical Helminthology, Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine
Date: 20 May 2014
ISBN: 978X90X8649X714X0
Funding: VLIR-UOS
During my PhD, I used genetic markers to retrospectively gain insight into the evolution and epidemiology of intestinal schistosomiasis in Northern Senegal. The construction of two water barrages in the Senegal River Basin in the 1980’s radically changed the environment resulting in one of the most severe epidemics of schistosomiasis.
I designed genetic markers (chapter 2) to reconstruct the history of this epidemic (chapter 3) and explore the impact of host-specific factors (chapter 4) and drug treatment (chapters 5 and 6) on parasite genetics. Following genetic analyses of historical and contemporary samples, I showed that the epidemic was triggered by many different parasite strains that were probably introduced by seasonal workers from neighboring regions (these findings were cited in several Belgian newspapers such as De Morgen and De Standaard. In addition, we found that drug treatment had no effect on the genetics of parasites sampled from 12 children that were monitored for over two years. My PhD concluded that the Schistosoma populations in northern Senegal retained a large genetic repertoire, allowing the selection of epidemiological relevant traits such as drug resistance or virulence, and underlining the complexity of controlling schistosomiasis.