| celebrity with a neglected taxonomy: molecular systematics of the medicinal leech (genus hirudo). | the medicinal leech is the most famous representative of the hirudinea. it is one of few invertebrates widely used in medicine and as a scientific model object. it has recently been given considerable conservation effort. despite all attention there is confusion regarding the taxonomic status of different morphological forms, with many different species described in the past, but only two generally accepted at present. the results of the phylogenetic analysis of a nuclear (its2+5.8s rrna) and tw ... | 2004 | 15683933 |
| spatial and temporal population dynamics of a naturally occurring two-species microbial community inside the digestive tract of the medicinal leech. | the medicinal leech, hirudo verbana, is one of the simplest naturally occurring models for digestive-tract symbioses, where only two bacterial species, aeromonas veronii bv. sobria (gamma-proteobacteria) and a rikenella-like bacterium (bacteroidetes), colonize the crop, the largest compartment of the leech digestive tract. in this study, we investigated spatial and temporal changes of the localization and microcolony structure of the native symbionts in the crop, after ingestion of a sterile blo ... | 2007 | 17277211 |
| diverse molecular data demonstrate that commercially available medicinal leeches are not hirudo medicinalis. | the european medicinal leech is one of vanishingly few animal species with direct application in modern medicine. in addition to the therapeutic potential held by many protease inhibitors purified from leech saliva, and notwithstanding the historical association with quackery, hirudo medicinalis has been approved by the united states food and drug administration as a prescription medical device. accurate annotation of bioactive compounds relies on precise species determination. interpretations o ... | 2007 | 17426015 |
| interaction between innate immune cells and a bacterial type iii secretion system in mutualistic and pathogenic associations. | animals house a community of bacterial symbionts in their digestive tracts that contribute to their well being. the medicinal leech, hirudo verbana, has a remarkably simple gut population carrying two extracellular microbes in the crop where the ingested blood is stored. this simplicity renders it attractive for studying colonization factors. aeromonas veronii, one of the leech symbionts, can be genetically manipulated and is a pathogen of mammals. screening transposon mutants of a. veronii for ... | 2007 | 17517651 |
| identification of aeromonas veronii genes required for colonization of the medicinal leech, hirudo verbana. | most digestive tracts contain a complex consortium of beneficial microorganisms, making it challenging to tease apart the molecular interactions between symbiont and host. the digestive tract of hirudo verbana, the medicinal leech, is an ideal model system because it harbors a simple microbial community in the crop, comprising the genetically amenable aeromonas veronii and a rikenella-like bacterium. signature-tagged mutagenesis (stm) was used to identify genes required for digestive tract colon ... | 2007 | 17616592 |
| proteins and peptides of the salivary gland secretion of medicinal leeches hirudo verbana, h. medicinalis, and h. orientalis. | the protein and peptide composition of medicinal leech salivary gland secretion (sgs) was analyzed in preparations obtained in july from three species--hirudo verbana, h. medicinalis, and h. orientalis. two-dimensional electrophoresis (molecular mass 10-150 kd and pi 3-10) revealed no distinctions in the distribution of over 100 silver-stained proteins. differences were noted only in intensity of 10 protein spots at 30-90 kd and pi 4.7-7.5. mass spectrometric profiling of sgs of the three leech ... | 2008 | 18393768 |
| characterization of the digestive-tract microbiota of hirudo orientalis, a european medicinal leech. | fda-approved, postoperative use of leeches can lead to bacterial infections. in this study, we used culture-dependent and culture-independent approaches to characterize the digestive-tract microbiota of hirudo orientalis. surprisingly, two aeromonas species, a. veronii and a. jandaei, were cultured. uncultured rikenella-like bacteria were most similar to isolates from hirudo verbana. | 2008 | 18689513 |
| application of the comet assay and detection of dna damage in haemocytes of medicinal leech affected by aluminium pollution: a case study. | this report describes an investigation of genotoxic effects in medicinal leech (hirudo verbana) exposed to water and sediment of lake njivice (krk island, croatia) contaminated by aluminium compounds. the levels of primary dna damage in leech haemocytes and loss of dna integrity caused by acute and chronic exposure to contaminated water and sediment were investigated using the alkaline comet assay. genotoxic effects induced by acute exposure to contaminants were evaluated on leech haemocytes and ... | 2009 | 19200629 |
| symbiont succession during embryonic development of the european medicinal leech, hirudo verbana. | the european medicinal leech, hirudo verbana, harbors simple microbial communities in the digestive tract and bladder. the colonization history, infection frequency, and growth dynamics of symbionts through host embryogenesis are described using diagnostic pcr and quantitative pcr. symbiont species displayed diversity in temporal establishment and proliferation through leech development. | 2009 | 19648363 |
| stratified bacterial community in the bladder of the medicinal leech, hirudo verbana. | most animals harbour symbiotic microorganisms inside their body, where intimate interactions occur between the partners. the medicinal leech, hirudo verbana, possesses 17 pairs of excretory bladders that harbour a large number of intracellular and extracellular symbiotic bacteria. in this study, we characterized the bladder symbionts using molecular phylogenetic analyses, transmission electron microscopy (tem) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (fish). restriction fragment length polymorphis ... | 2009 | 19678832 |
| shared strategies for behavioral switching: understanding how locomotor patterns are turned on and off. | animals frequently switch from one behavior to another, often to meet the demands of their changing environment or internal state. what factors control these behavioral switches and the selection of what to do or what not to do? to address these issues, we will focus on the locomotor behaviors of two distantly related "worms," the medicinal leech hirudo verbana (clade lophotrochozoa) and the nematode caenorhabditis elegans (clade ecdysozoa). although the neural architecture and body morphology o ... | 2010 | 20721315 |
| the type ii secretion system is essential for erythrocyte lysis and gut colonization by the leech digestive tract symbiont aeromonas veronii. | hemolysin and the type ii secretion system (t2ss) have been shown to be important for virulence in many pathogens, but very few studies have shown their importance in beneficial microbes. here, we investigated the importance of the type ii secretion pathway in the beneficial digestive-tract association of aeromonas veronii and the medicinal leech hirudo verbana and revealed a critical role for the hemolysis of erythrocytes. a mutant with a minitn5 insertion in exem, which is involved in forming ... | 2010 | 21097598 |
| directed culturing of microorganisms using metatranscriptomics. | the vast majority of bacterial species remain uncultured, and this severely limits the investigation of their physiology, metabolic capabilities, and role in the environment. high-throughput sequencing of rna transcripts (rna-seq) allows the investigation of the diverse physiologies from uncultured microorganisms in their natural habitat. here, we report the use of rna-seq for characterizing the metatranscriptome of the simple gut microbiome from the medicinal leech hirudo verbana and for utiliz ... | 2011 | 21467263 |
| medicinal leeches and the microsurgeon: a four-year study, clinical series and risk benefit review. | background: there are case reports and small series in the literature relating to the use of medicinal leeches by plastic surgeons; however, larger series from individual units are rare. the aim of this article is to present a comprehensive 4-year case series of the use of medicinal leeches, discuss the current evidence regarding indications, risks, and benefits and highlight the recent updates regarding leech speciation. methods: patients prescribed leeches in a 4-year period (july 2004-2008) w ... | 2011 | 21520265 |
| serotonin modulates muscle function in the medicinal leech hirudo verbana. | the body wall muscles of sanguivorous leeches power mechanically diverse behaviours: suction feeding, crawling and swimming. these require longitudinal muscle to exert force over an extremely large length range, from 145 to 46 per cent of the mean segmental swimming length. previous data, however, suggest that leech body wall muscle has limited capacity for force production when elongated. serotonin (5-ht) alters the passive properties of the body wall and stimulates feeding. we hypothesized tha ... | 2011 | 21561963 |
| identification of iron and heme utilization genes in aeromonas and their role in the colonization of the leech digestive tract. | it is known that many pathogens produce high-affinity iron uptake systems like siderophores and/or proteins for utilizing iron bound to heme-containing molecules, which facilitate iron-acquisition inside a host. in mutualistic digestive-tract associations, iron uptake systems have not been as well studied. we investigated the importance of two iron utilization systems within the beneficial digestive-tract association aeromonas veronii and the medicinal leech, hirudo verbana. siderophores were de ... | 2015 | 26284048 |
| investigation into the physiologies of aeromonas veronii in vitro and inside the digestive tract of the medicinal leech using rna-seq. | host-associated microbial communities are widespread in nature and vital to the health and fitness of the host. deciphering the physiology of the microbiome in vivo is critical to understanding the molecular basis of the symbiosis. recently, the development and application of high-throughput sequencing techniques, particularly rna-seq, for studying microbial communities has enabled researchers to address not only which microbes are present in a given community but also how the community function ... | 2012 | 22983040 |
| host matters: medicinal leech digestive-tract symbionts and their pathogenic potential. | digestive-tract microbiota exert tremendous influence over host health. host-symbiont model systems are studied to investigate how symbioses are initiated and maintained, as well as to identify host processes affected by resident microbiota. the medicinal leech, hirudo verbana, is an excellent model to address such questions owing to a microbiome that is consistently dominated by two species, aeromonas veronii and mucinivorans hirudinis, both of which are cultivable and have sequenced genomes. t ... | 2016 | 27790190 |
| reciprocal immune benefit based on complementary production of antibiotics by the leech hirudo verbana and its gut symbiont aeromonas veronii. | the medicinal leech has established a long-term mutualistic association with aeromonas veronii, a versatile bacterium which can also display free-living waterborne and fish- or human-pathogenic lifestyles. here, we investigated the role of antibiotics in the dynamics of interaction between the leech and its gut symbiont aeromonas. by combining biochemical and molecular approaches, we isolated and identified for the first time the antimicrobial peptides (amps) produced by the leech digestive trac ... | 2015 | 26635240 |
| characterization of shed medicinal leech mucus reveals a diverse microbiota. | microbial transmission through mucosal-mediated mechanisms is widespread throughout the animal kingdom. one example of this occurs with hirudo verbana, the medicinal leech, where host attraction to shed conspecific mucus facilitates horizontal transmission of a predominant gut symbiont, the gammaproteobacterium aeromonas veronii. however, whether this mucus may harbor other bacteria has not been examined. here, we characterize the microbiota of shed leech mucus through illumina deep sequencing o ... | 2014 | 25620963 |
| hitchhiking of host biology by beneficial symbionts enhances transmission. | transmission plays a key role in the evolution of symbiosis. mixed mode transmission combines horizontal and vertical mechanisms for symbiont acquisition. however, features that enable mixed transmission are poorly understood. here, we determine the mechanistic basis for the recruitment of the beneficial bacterium, aeromonas veronii by the leech, hirudo verbana. we demonstrate that host mucosal secretions complement imperfect symbiont vertical transmission. first, we show that the a. veronii pop ... | 2014 | 25059557 |
| metagenomic analysis of the medicinal leech gut microbiota. | there are trillions of microbes found throughout the human body and they exceed the number of eukaryotic cells by 10-fold. metagenomic studies have revealed that the majority of these microbes are found within the gut, playing an important role in the host's digestion and nutrition. the complexity of the animal digestive tract, unculturable microbes, and the lack of genetic tools for most culturable microbes make it challenging to explore the nature of these microbial interactions within this ni ... | 2014 | 24860552 |
| draft genome sequence of aeromonas veronii hm21, a symbiotic isolate from the medicinal leech digestive tract. | aeromonas veronii strain hm21 was isolated from the digestive tract of the medicinal leech hirudo verbana and has been used to identify genes that are important for host colonization. this species is also a symbiont in the gut of zebrafish and is a pathogen of mammals and fish. we present here a 4.68-mbp draft genome sequence for hm21. | 2013 | 24092791 |
| bacterial symbioses of the medicinal leech hirudo verbana. | gastrointestinal microbiomes play important roles in the health and nutrition of animals and humans. the medicinal leech, hirudo verbana, serves as a powerful model for the study of microbial symbioses of the gut, due to its naturally limited microbiome compared with other popular models, the ability to cultivate the most abundant microbes, and genetically manipulate one of them, aeromonas veronii. this review covers the relevance and application of leeches in modern medicine as well as recent d ... | 2017 | 22572874 |
| viral infection risks for patients using the finished product hirudo verbana (medicinal leech). | the virological safety of medicinal leeches has to be ensured prior to their use on patients. while leeches can be kept and bred under standardized conditions, feeding them horse blood adds a non-standardized component, which poses some risk of infection of the treated patients. here, we investigated the speed at which blood-borne viruses are degraded by the microbial flora in the leech intestine, in order to define the safety of the product and the length of the necessary quarantine period prio ... | 2014 | 25185664 |
| the medicinal leech genome encodes 21 innexin genes: different combinations are expressed by identified central neurons. | gap junctional proteins are important components of signaling pathways required for the development and ongoing functions of all animal tissues, particularly the nervous system, where they function in the intracellular and extracellular exchange of small signaling factors and ions. in animals whose genomes have been sufficiently sequenced, large families of these proteins, connexins, pannexins, and innexins, have been found, with 25 innexins in the nematode caenorhabditis elegans starich et al. ... | 2012 | 22358128 |
| draft genome sequence of pedobacter sp. strain hv1, an isolate from medicinal leech mucosal castings. | the pedobacter sp. hv1 strain was isolated from the medicinal leech, hirudo verbana, mucosal castings. these mucosal sheds have been demonstrated to play a role in horizontal symbiont transmission. here, we report the draft 4.9 mbp genome sequence of pedobacter sp. strain hv1. | 2015 | 26679583 |
| mucinivorans hirudinis gen. nov., sp. nov., an anaerobic, mucin-degrading bacterium isolated from the digestive tract of the medicinal leech hirudo verbana. | three anaerobic bacterial strains were isolated from the digestive tract of the medicinal leech hirudo verbana, using mucin as the primary carbon and energy source. these strains, designated m3(t), m4 and m6, were gram-stain-negative, non-spore-forming and non-motile. cells were elongated bacilli approximately 2.4 µm long and 0.6 µm wide. growth only occurred anaerobically under mesophilic and neutral ph conditions. all three strains could utilize multiple simple and complex sugars as carbon sou ... | 2015 | 25563920 |
| may salivary gland secretory proteins from hematophagous leeches (hirudo verbana) reach pharmacologically relevant concentrations in the vertebrate host? | saliva of hematophagous leeches (hirudo sp.) contains bioactive proteins which allow the leech proper feeding and storage of ingested blood, but may also exert effects in the host. leech therapy is used to treat many different ailments in humans, although only a small fraction of salivary proteins are characterized yet. moreover, we do not know whether complete transfer of salivary proteins stored in the unicellular salivary glands in a leech to the host during feeding may generate concentration ... | 2013 | 24058492 |
| niabella hirudinis and niabella drilacis sp. nov., isolated from the medicinal leech hirudo verbana. | two gram-negative, rod-shaped bacteria, strains e96(t) and e90(t), were isolated from medicinal leeches (hirudo verbana) and characterized by a polyphasic taxonomic approach. phylogenetic analysis based on the nearly full-length 16s rrna gene sequence showed that the two strains shared 98.1% sequence similarity and were affiliated with the genus niabella within the phylum bacteroidetes, with 94.4-97.6% sequence similarity to type strains of species of the genus niabella and highest sequence simi ... | 2013 | 23543503 |
| kaistia hirudinis sp. nov., isolated from the skin of hirudo verbana. | a gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium was isolated from the skin of the medical leech hirudo verbana and studied for its taxonomic allocation. 16s rrna gene sequence similarities to other strains showed that the strain was closely related to species of the genus kaistia. kaistia geumhonensis was shown to be the most closely related species (96.8%), followed by kaistia soli (96.6%) and kaistia dalseonensis (96.2%). all other species of the genus kaistia showed 16s rrna gene sequence similarities ... | 2013 | 23456803 |
| devosia epidermidihirudinis sp. nov. isolated from the surface of a medical leech. | a gram-negative, rod-shaped organism, isolated from the surface of the medical leech hirudo verbana was characterized phenotypically and genotypically. the calculated 16s rrna gene sequence similarities to those of the most closely related species grouped strain e84(t) into the genus devosia showing the highest similarities to devosia limi (98.1 %), followed by devosia psychrophila (97.9 %), devosia neptuniae (97.3 %), and devosia glacialis (97.5 %). chemotaxonomic analyses showed that the major ... | 2013 | 23446703 |
| flavobacterium cutihirudinis sp. nov., isolated from the skin of the medical leech hirudo verbana. | a gram-staining-negative, non-endospore-forming, yellow-pigmented strain (e89(t)) was isolated from the skin of the medical leech hirudo verbana obtained from a leech farm located in biebertal, germany. 16s rrna gene sequencing analysis showed that the isolate was grouped in the genus flavobacterium. strain e89(t) was most closely related to flavobacterium chilense lm-09-fp(t) (98.2 %), flavobacterium chungangense cj7(t) (98.1 %), and flavobacterium oncorhynchi 631-08(t) (98.1 %). 16s rrna gene ... | 2013 | 23315416 |
| castellaniella hirudinis sp. nov., isolated from the skin of hirudo verbana. | a gram-staining-negative, rod-shaped, non-spore-forming bacterium, designated strain e103(t), was isolated from the skin of the medical leech hirudo verbana. 16s rrna gene sequence analysis showed that the isolate was closely related to species of the genus castellaniella. castellaniella ginsengisoli dcy36(t) was shown to be the most closely related (98.4 % 16s rrna gene sequence similarity), followed by castellaniella denitrificans nkntau(t) and castellaniella daejeonensis mj06(t) (both 97.8 %) ... | 2013 | 22523161 |