{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"name":"bioRxiv"}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,15]],"date-time":"2026-01-15T21:25:12Z","timestamp":1768512312389,"version":"3.49.0"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,27]]},"group-title":"Microbiology","reference-count":0,"publisher":"openRxiv","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,27]],"date-time":"2024-05-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1716768000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,22]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Schistosomes are parasitic flatworms responsible for the neglected tropical disease schistosomiasis, causing devastating morbidity and mortality in the developing world. The parasites are protected by a skin-like tegument, and maintenance of this tegument is controlled by a schistosome ortholog of the tumor suppressor TP53. To understand mechanistically how p53-1 controls tegument production, we identified a cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor homolog (cki) that was co-expressed with p53-1. RNA interference of cki resulted in a hyperproliferation phenotype, that, in combination with p53-1 RNA interference yielded abundant tumor-like growths, indicating that cki and p53-1 are bona fide tumor suppressors in Schistosoma mansoni. Interestingly, cki homologs are widely present throughout parasitic flatworms but evidently absent from their free-living ancestors, suggesting this cki homolog came from an ancient horizontal gene transfer event. This in turn implies that the evolution of parasitism in flatworms may have been aided by a highly unusual means of metazoan genetic inheritance.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1101\/2024.05.27.596073","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,28]],"date-time":"2024-05-28T00:05:14Z","timestamp":1716854714000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Horizontal gene transfer of a functional cki homolog in the human pathogen Schistosoma mansoni"],"prefix":"10.64898","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8302-079X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"George R","family":"Wendt","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"suffix":"III","given":"James J","family":"Collins","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"54368","container-title":[],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/syndication.highwire.org\/content\/doi\/10.1101\/2024.05.27.596073","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,15]],"date-time":"2026-01-15T06:29:11Z","timestamp":1768458551000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"http:\/\/biorxiv.org\/lookup\/doi\/10.1101\/2024.05.27.596073"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,27]]},"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1101\/2024.05.27.596073","relation":{},"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,27]]},"subtype":"preprint"}}