Authors
F Winkelmann1; M Gesell Salazar2; C Hentschker2; S Michalik2; T Macháček3; C Scharf2; E C Reisinger1; M Sombetzki1; U Völker2; 1 University Medical Center Rostock, Germany; 2 University Medicine Greifswald, Germany; 3 Charles University Prague, Germany Discussion
The surface of adult schistosoma spp. allows them to survive successfully in their hostile environment. So far, proteome analyses of the surface of adult schistosomes have been performed, but here we present the first sex-specific tegument proteome datasets of mature and immature adult S. mansoni. To analyse the tegument proteome, a streptavidin-biotin affinity purification technique was performed in combination with single pot solid-phase enhanced sample preparation (SP3) for subsequent LC-MS/MS analysis. We were able to identify 1519 tegument proteins for male_single, male_pair, female_single and female_pair adult worms. Functional analysis revealed that proteins involved in signaling pathways of cellular processes and antioxidant mechanisms were exclusively found among the female-specific proteins, while the male-specific proteins were enriched for protein phosphorylation processes and signal transduction. Our results indicate that adult S. mansoni have sex-specific proteins that could help us to develop an effective vaccine against mature and immature adult schistosomes. 
