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Unit 8 - Flatworms

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Unit 8 - Flatworms

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elysepither
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Unit 8 – Flatworms

The Acoelomate Plan


● Simple bilateral body design
● Only internal space is the gut
● Region between endoderm and ectoderm filled with spongy parenchyma (mesoderm)
● Mesoderm = evolution of organs/ systems
Phylum Platyhelminthes
● Platy = flat helminths = worm
● Free-living and parasitic flatworms are simplest animals with primary bilateral symmetry
● Cephalization: development of a head
● Nervous system (primitive brain) - b/c of mesoderm
● First excretory system - b/c of mesoderm
● First digestive system - b/c of mesoderm
● Lack coelom or pseudocoelom (acoelomate); only internal space is digestive cavity
● Region between ectoderm and endoderm filled with parenchyma
● Body wall has layers of muscle fibers
Phylum Platyhelminthes: Class Turbellaria
● Mostly free-living flatworms with ciliated epidermis
● Creeping and ciliated movement on slime tracks on land; swim using cilia or muscular
undulations
● Feed through muscular pharynx, which opens up inside mouth
● Carnivorous
● Osmoregulatory system of canals and tubules end in flagellated flame cells that draw
fluid into lumen, then into collecting ducts that open to outside through pores (first
excretory system)
● Light sensitive eye-spots called ocelli
● Auricles (ear-like but not for sound) function in tactile reception and chemoreception
(chemicals)
● Cerebral ganglia (first ‘brain’)
● Reproduces asexually by fission (fragmentation), followed by regeneration of missing
parts
● Most monoecious but practice cross-fertilization by releasing gametes into substrate
● Direct development (no larval stage - a miniature version of the adult is born)

Phylum Platyhelminthes: Class Trematoda - flukes


● Primarily endoparasitic flukes
● Leaf like shape
● Parasitic flukes; usually endoparasites of vertebrates
● Simplification in parasites as they rely on hosts
○ simplification of digestive system as they rely on hosts
○ Less developed sense organs
○ Attachment structures (hooks, suction cups, teeth, etc)
○ Cyst-producing glands (important in survival when getting from one host to
another)
○ No cilia (have tegument) - not mobile
○ Increased reproductive capacity
● Structural adaptations for parasitism include cyst-producing glands, organs for
penetration or adhesion, and increased reproductive capacity
Life Cycle of the Human Liver Fluke: Clonorchis sinensis
● Most important liver fluke of humans; common in eastern Asia
● Sexual reproduction in host results in production of eggs
● Egg in host feces passes into water, where they are eaten by a snail. Egg hatches into
larva (miracidium), which transforms into a sporocyst
● Sporocyst reproduces asexually to yield either more sporocysts or many rediae
● Rediae move to snail’s liver where they reproduce asexually to produce more rediae or
cercariae
● Cercariae emerge from snail, penetrate muscles of fish host and become metacercaria
cysts
● When cysts eaten by mammal host, they dissolve in intestine
● Migrate up bile duct and develop into adults. Heavy infection causes cirrhosis of the liver
and death.
Schistosoma: a blood fluke
● Live in circulatory system associated with the intestine and bladder
● Can penetrate the skin to get into the definitive host - human (ex. barefoot in water)
Phylum Platyhelminthes: Class Cestoda - Tapeworms
● All endoparasites
● Long, flat bodies with linear series of reproductive proglottids (segments)
● Muscular, nervous, excretory systems like other flatworms
● No digestive system, no sense organs, and no external motile cilia
● Scolexis hooked, suckered, or spiny organ of attachment; absorb all required nutrients
through tegument
● Monecious
Life Cycle of the Beef Tapeworm: Taeniarhynchus saginatus
● Intermediate host - cow
● Definitive host - humans
● New proglottids form behind scolex
● As new proglottids differentiate in front of it, each individual unit moves back and gonads
mature
● Proglottid fertilized by another proglottid from same or different tapeworm
● Embryos form in gravid proglottid; expelled through uterine pore or entire proglottid
detaches
● Shelled embryos and gravid proglottids pass out in feces
● Cattle swallow shelled larvae. Larvae Use their hooks to burrow through the intestine
wall. Migrate to muscles, encyst and remain dormant
● When meat eaten, cyst wall dissolves in digestive tract of human host and tapeworm
attaches to the intestinal wall with scolex
● Most common tapeworm in humans; 1% of US cattle are infected
● Humans become infected by eating rare steak, roast beef, and barbecued meat. Cook
meat thoroughly!

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