Figure 1. Contractile muscle fibers can be dispersed from adult schistosomes.

(A) A typical field from a dish of the dispersion described in the methods. Amongst some debris and other cell types, there are a significant number of frayed muscle fibers which contract in response to the application of exogenous stimuli. (B) One specific frayed muscle fiber is approached by a pipet loaded with 1 µM YIRFamide dissolved into the same incubation medium in which the fiber is resting. (C) Pressure ejection of the YIRFamide onto the muscle fiber induces an abrupt contraction. For all three pictures the scale bar is 25 µm.