title: Host Matters: Medicinal Leech Digestive-Tract Symbionts and Their Pathogenic Potential.
abstract: 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 veroniiandMucinivorans hirudinis, both of which are cultivable and have sequenced genomes. This review outlines current knowledge about the dynamics of theH. verbanamicrobiome. We discuss in depth the factors required forA. veroniicolonization and proliferation in the leech crop and summarize the current understanding of interactions betweenA. veroniiand its annelid host. Lastly, we discuss leech usage in modern medicine and highlight how leech-therapy associated infections, often attributable toAeromonasspp., are of growing clinical concern due in part to an increased prevalence of fluoroquinolone resistant strains.
authors: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs CT, USA.
authors: Jeremiah N
authors: JN
authors: Marden
authors: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs CT, USA.
authors: Emily A
authors: EA
authors: McClure
authors: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs CT, USA.
authors: Lidia
authors: L
authors: Beka
authors: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Connecticut, StorrsCT, USA; Institute for Systems Genomics, University of Connecticut, StorrsCT, USA.
authors: Joerg
authors: J
authors: Graf
keywords: Aeromonas; Hirudo; bacteroidetes; beneficial bacteria; digestive-tract symbiosis; leech therapy; mucinivorans