The medicinal leech is a developing experimental model of gut symbioses. Aeromonas
veronii and Mucinivorans hirudinis are core members of the gut microbial community in …

Leeches are found in terrestrial, aquatic, and marine habitats on all continents.
Sanguivorous leeches have been used in medicine for millennia. Modern scientific uses …

ABSTRACT The European medicinal leech, Hirudo verbana, harbors simple microbial
communities in the digestive tract and bladder. The colonization history, infection frequency …

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 …

The digestive tract symbiosis of the medicinal leech, Hirudo verbana, is a model system for
studying the genes required for microbial colonization of digestive tracts, as H. verbana has …

Most digestive tracts contain a complex consortium of beneficial microorganisms, making it
challenging to tease apart the molecular interactions between symbiont and host. The …

The medicinal leech has established a long-term mutualistic association with Aeromonas
veronii, a versatile bacterium which can also display free-living waterborne and fish-or …

Microbial transmission through mucosal-mediated mechanisms is widespread throughout
the animal kingdom. One example of this occurs with Hirudo verbana, the medicinal leech …

Gastrointestinal microbiomes play important roles in the health and nutrition of animals and
humans. The medicinal leech, Hirudo verbana, serves as a powerful model for the study of …

Transmission plays a key role in the evolution of symbiosis. Mixed mode transmission
combines horizontal and vertical mechanisms for symbiont acquisition. However, features …