ArticlePLoS neglected tropical diseases2013
Non-invasive sampling of schistosomes from humans requires correcting for family structure.
Article in PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- Direct measurement ofbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Evidence of high genetic diversity among parasite populations in a schistosomiasis hotspot.Microbiology spectrum · 2025Article
- Revisiting density-dependent fecundity in schistosomes using sibship reconstruction.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2021Article
- Parasite Population Genetic Contributions to the Schistosomiasis Consortium for Operational Research and Evaluation within Sub-Saharan Africa.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2020Review
- Ancient Hybridization and Adaptive Introgression of an Invadolysin Gene in Schistosome Parasites.Molecular biology and evolution · 2019Article
- Estimating helminth burdens using sibship reconstruction.Parasites & vectors · 2019Article
- The effect of sample size on estimates of genetic differentiation and effective population size for Schistosoma mansoni populations.International journal for parasitology · 2018Article
- Whole genome amplification and exome sequencing of archived schistosome miracidia.Parasitology · 2018Article
- Repeated praziquantel treatments remodel the genetic and spatial landscape of schistosomiasis risk and transmission.International journal for parasitology · 2016Article
- An investigation into the potential effects of infrapopulation structure and other sources of sampling error, on population genetic studies of the transmission of Schistosoma japonicum (Trematoda: Digenea).Parasites & vectors · 2016Article
- No apparent reduction in schistosome burden or genetic diversity following four years of school-based mass drug administration in mwea, central kenya, a heavy transmission area.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2014Article
- Efficient linkage mapping using exome capture and extreme QTL in schistosome parasites.BMC genomics · 2014Article
- Inbreeding within human Schistosoma mansoni: do host-specific factors shape the genetic composition of parasite populations?Heredity · 2014Article
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10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
For ethical and logistical reasons, population-genetic studies of parasites often rely on the non-invasive sampling of offspring shed from their definitive hosts. However, if the sampled offspring are naturally derived from a small number of parents, then the strong family structure can result in biased population-level estimates of genetic parameters, particularly if reproductive output is skewed. Here, we document and correct for the strong family structure present within schistosome offspring (miracidia) that were collected non-invasively from humans in western Kenya. By genotyping 2,424 miracidia from 12 patients at 12 microsatellite loci and using a sibship clustering program, we found that the samples contained large numbers of siblings. Furthermore, reproductive success of the breeding schistosomes was skewed, creating differential representation of each family in the offspring pool. After removing the family structure with an iterative jacknifing procedure, we demonstrated that the presence of relatives led to inflated estimates of genetic differentiation and linkage disequilibrium, and downwardly-biased estimates of inbreeding coefficients (FIS). For example, correcting for family structure yielded estimates of FST among patients that were 27 times lower than estimates from the uncorrected samples. These biased estimates would cause one to draw false conclusions regarding these parameters in the adult population. We also found from our analyses that estimates of the number of full sibling families and other genetic parameters of samples of miracidia were highly intercorrelated but are not correlated with estimates of worm burden obtained via egg counting (Kato-Katz). Whether genetic methods or the traditional Kato-Katz estimator provide a better estimate of actual number of adult worms remains to be seen. This study illustrates that family structure must be explicitly accounted for when using offspring samples to estimate the genetic parameters of adult parasite populations.
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