PBS Faculty Office: BIOTRON

• Professor of Parasitology
• Director, Cellular and Molecular Parasitology Training Program
• BA, 1970; MA, 1971 University of California, Santa Barbara
• PhD 1975, University of California, Santa Barbara
• NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, 1975-77, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA

RESEARCH AREAS: Physiological interactions between parasites and their invertebrate hosts; Comparative immunobiology; Invertebrate innate immunity; Invertebrate lectins as pathogen recognition receptors (PRR); Genomic, proteomic and glycomic profiling of larval schistosome development. DESCRIPTION: Research in the laboratory emphasizes the cellular, biochemical and molecular interactions between larvae of the human blood fluke, Schistosoma mansoni , and its snail intermediate host, Biomphalaria glabrata. The major projects involve (1) investigating the recognition mechanisms underlying cellular immune responses to infection by larval S . mansoni in genetically defined susceptible and resistant snails, (2) recognition receptors of snail hemocytes (circulating phagocytic cells), with emphasis on lectin PRRs and their signal transduction systems, (3) characterizing differential gene- and protein expression changes during early larval schistosome development using microarray, SAGE, and proteomic analyses, and (4) glycomic analysis of complex carbohydrates expressed at the schistosome larval surface and investigation of the glycosyltransferases associated with their synthesis. Supported by NIH grants RO1 AI15503 and AI061436.

Veterinary Parasitology

Williams, D. L., A. A. Sayed, A. G. McArthur, A. Taft, J. J. Vermeire, and T. P. Yoshino. 2007. Profiling Schistosoma mansoni development using Serial Analysis of Gene Expression (SAGE). Exp. Parasitol., Epub ahead of print. PMID: 17577588

Vermeire, J. J. and T. P. Yoshino. 2007. Antioxidant gene expression and function in in vitro-developing Schistosoma mansoni mother sporocysts: possible role in self-protection. Parasitology, 134: 1369-1378.

Castillo, M. G., X.J. Wu, N. Dinguirard, A. K. Nyame, R. D. Cummings, and T. P. Yoshino. 2007. Surface membrane proteins of Biomphalaria glabrata embryonic cells bind fucosyl determinants on the tegumental surface of Schistosoma mansoni primary sporocysts. J. Parasitol., 93: 832-840.

Vermeire, J.J. , A. S. Taft, K. F. Hoffmann, J. M. Fitzpatrick and T. P. Yoshino. 2006. Schistosoma mansoni: DNA microarray gene expression profiling during the miracidium-to-mother sporocyst transformation. Mol. Biochem. Parasitol., 147: 39-47.

Yoshino, T. P., J. J. Vermeire, and J. E. Humphries. 2006. Parasitic flatworms: Signal Transduction at the host-parasite interface. In “Parasitic Flatworms - Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Immunology and Physiology” (Ed., A. Maule), CABI Publishing, Chapt. 10, p. 210-227.

Dinguirard, N., and T. P. Yoshino. 2006. Potential role of a CD36-like class B scavenger receptor in the binding of modified low-density lipoproteins (acLDL) to the tegumental surface of Schistosoma mansoni sporocysts. Mol. Biochem. Parasitol., 146, 219-230.

Humphries, J. E. and T. P. Yoshino. 2006. Schistosoma mansoni excretory-secretory products stimulate a p38 signaling pathway in Biomphalaria glabrata embryonic cells. Internatl. J. Parasitol. 36, 37-46.

Vermeire, J. J., J. E. Humphries, and T. P. Yoshino. 2005. Signal transduction in larval trematodes: putative systems associated with regulating larval motility and behavior. Parasitology, 131, S57-S70.Vermeire, J. J., J.

Boyle, J. P., and T. P. Yoshino. 2005. Serotonin-induced muscular activity in Schistosoma mansoni larval stages: importance of 5-HT transport and role in daughter sporocyst production. J. Parasitol., 91, 542-550.

Vermeire, J. J., J. P. Boyle and T. P. Yoshino (2004). Differential gene expression and the effects of Biomphalaria glabrata embryonic (Bge) cell factors during larval Schistosoma mansoni development. Mol. Biochem. Parasitol., 135, 153-157.

Boyle, J. P., and T. P. Yoshino. 2003. Gene manipulation in parasitic helminths. Internatl. J. Parasitol., 33: 1259-1268.

Boyle, J. P., J. F. Hillyer, and T. P. Yoshino. 2003. Pharmacological and autoradiographical analysis of serotonin transporter-like activity in sporocysts of the human blood fluke, Schistosoma mansoni. J. Comp. Physiol. A, 189: 631-641.

Boyle, J.P., X.J. Wu, C.B. Shoemaker, and T.P. Yoshino. 2003. Using RNA interference to manipulate endogenous gene expression in Schistosoma mansoni sporocysts. Mol. Biochem. Parasitol., 128: 205-215.