Figures
The blood fluke esophageal gland secretes factors to block and lyse host cells during blood feeding
The head region spanning the esophagus of an adult male Schistosoma mansoni is labeled with peanut agglutinin (PNA) (yellow), phalloidin (magenta), and DAPI (cyan). Phalloidin labels the esophageal muscle while PNA highlights the surrounding esophageal gland (EG), a specialized secretory organ essential for survival within the host vasculature. In the esophageal lumen, secreted gland material (yellow) is intermingled with damaged host leukocytes (cyan). This study identifies the specific EG factor and its functional domain that drives the direct lysis of ingested host red and white blood cells and interacts with host proteins critical for immune activation/defense. Yadav et al. 2026
Image Credit: Jayhun Lee
Citation: (2026) PLoS Pathogens Issue Image | Vol. 22(3) April 2026. PLoS Pathog 22(3): ev22.i03. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.ppat.v22.i03
Published: April 14, 2026
Copyright: © 2026 . This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
The head region spanning the esophagus of an adult male Schistosoma mansoni is labeled with peanut agglutinin (PNA) (yellow), phalloidin (magenta), and DAPI (cyan). Phalloidin labels the esophageal muscle while PNA highlights the surrounding esophageal gland (EG), a specialized secretory organ essential for survival within the host vasculature. In the esophageal lumen, secreted gland material (yellow) is intermingled with damaged host leukocytes (cyan). This study identifies the specific EG factor and its functional domain that drives the direct lysis of ingested host red and white blood cells and interacts with host proteins critical for immune activation/defense. Yadav et al. 2026
Image Credit: Jayhun Lee