{"doi":"10.1002/cne.25195","title":"<scp> FMRF‐NH <sub>2</sub> ‐related </scp> neuropeptides in <scp> <i>Biomphalaria</i> </scp> spp., intermediate hosts for schistosomiasis: Precursor organization and immunohistochemical localization","abstract":"Abstract Freshwater snails of the genus Biomphalaria serve as intermediate hosts for the digenetic trematode Schistosoma mansoni , the etiological agent for the most widespread form of intestinal schistosomiasis. As neuropeptide signaling in host snails can be altered by trematode infection, a neural transcriptomics approach was undertaken to identify peptide precursors in Biomphalaria glabrata , the major intermediate host for S . mansoni in the Western Hemisphere. Three transcripts that encode peptides belonging to the FMRF‐NH 2 ‐related peptide (FaRP) family were identified in B . glabrata . One transcript encoded a precursor polypeptide ( Bgl‐FaRP1 ; 292 amino acids) that included eight copies of the tetrapeptide FMRF‐NH 2 and single copies of FIRF‐NH 2 , FLRF‐NH 2 , and pQFYRI‐NH 2 . The second transcript encoded a precursor ( Bgl‐FaRP2 ; 347 amino acids) that comprised 14 copies of the heptapeptide GDPFLRF‐NH 2 and 1 copy of SKPYMRF‐NH 2 . The precursor encoded by the third transcript ( Bgl‐FaRP3 ; 287 amino acids) recapitulated Bgl‐FaRP2 but lacked the full SKPYMRF‐NH 2 peptide. The three precursors shared a common signal peptide, suggesting a genomic organization described previously in gastropods. Immunohistochemical studies were performed on the nervous systems of B . glabrata and B . alexandrina , a major intermediate host for S . mansoni in Egypt. FMRF‐NH 2 ‐like immunoreactive (FMRF‐NH 2 ‐li) neurons were located in regions of the central nervous system associated with reproduction, feeding, and cardiorespiration. Antisera raised against non‐FMRF‐NH 2 peptides present in the tetrapeptide and heptapeptide precursors labeled independent subsets of the FMRF‐NH 2 ‐li neurons. This study supports the participation of FMRF‐NH 2 ‐related neuropeptides in the regulation of vital physiological and behavioral systems that are altered by parasitism in Biomphalaria .","journal":"The Journal of Comparative Neurology","year":2021,"id":200094,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":8,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9515,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":777222,"name":"Mohamed R. Habib","orcid":"0000-0003-0820-9290","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":426997,"name":"Tamer Mansour","orcid":"0000-0002-4747-4241","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":777223,"name":"Manuel Díaz‐Ríos","orcid":"0000-0002-8983-9966","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":288518,"name":"Joshua J. C. Rosenthal","orcid":"0000-0001-8139-9364","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":525838,"name":"Xiao‐Nong Zhou","orcid":"0000-0003-1417-8427","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":777224,"name":"Roger P. Croll","orcid":"0000-0002-9846-0923","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":777225,"name":"Mark W. Miller","orcid":"0000-0002-1237-9631","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":777221,"name":"Solymar Rolón‐Martínez","orcid":"0000-0002-4653-9568","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":145,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:50:44.479665Z","pmid":"34041754","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}