Cloning of schistosomes.
Before cloning was perfected, the only way to maintain schistosome strains was by sustaining the entire parasite cycle, ie. by ensuring the regular transmission of the parasite from the snail to the vertebrate, then from the vertebrate to the snail, and so on ad infinitum. Joseph Jourdane explains that by cloning the parasite in the snail and transplanting the larval parasite from snail to snail, the passage in vertebrates can be avoided indefinitely.
CNRS, Université, Avenue de Villeneuve, 66025 Perpignan, Cedex, France.
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