Diminished adherence of Biomphalaria glabrata embryonic cell line to sporocysts of Schistosoma mansoni following programmed knockout of the allograft inflammatory factor.

The findings supported the hypothesis that BgAIF plays a role in the adherence of B. glabrata hemocytes to sporocysts during schistosome infection in vitro. This demonstration of the activity of programmed gene editing will enable functional genomics approaches using CRISPR/Cas9 to investigate additional components of the snail-schistosome host-parasite relationship.