Physiological Processes of Flatworms

The free-living species of flatworms are predators or scavengers. Parasitic forms feed by absorbing nutrients provided by their hosts. Most flatworms, such as the planarian shown in (Figure), have a branching gastrovascular cavity rather than a complete digestive system. In such animals, the “mouth” is also used to expel waste materials from the digestive system, and thus also serves as an anus. (A few species may have a second anal pore or opening.) The gut may be a simple sac or highly branched. Digestion is primarily extracellular, with digested materials taken into the cells of the gut lining by phagocytosis. One parasitic group, the tapeworms (cestodes), lacks a digestive system altogether, and absorb digested food from the host.

Flatworms have an excretory system with a network of tubules attached to flame cells, whose cilia beat to direct waste fluids concentrated in the tubules out of the body through excretory pores. The system is responsible for the regulation of dissolved salts and the excretion of nitrogenous wastes. The nervous system consists of a pair of lateral nerve cords running the length of the body with transverse connections between them. Two large cerebral ganglia—concentrations of nerve cell bodies at the anterior end of the worm—are associated with photosensory and chemosensory cells. There is neither a circulatory nor a respiratory system, with gas and nutrient exchange dependent on diffusion and cell-to-cell junctions. This necessarily limits the thickness of the body in these organisms, constraining them to be “flat” worms. Most flatworm species are monoecious (both male and female reproductive organs are found in the same individual), and fertilization is typically internal. Asexual reproduction by fission is common in some groups.

Figure 2. Planaria, a free-living flatworm. The planarian is a flatworm that has a gastrovascular cavity with one opening that serves as both mouth and anus. The excretory system is made up of flame cells and tubules connected to excretory pores on both sides of the body. The nervous system is composed of two interconnected nerve cords running the length of the body, with cerebral ganglia and eyespots at the anterior end.

Diversity of Flatworms

The flatworms have been traditionally divided into four classes: Turbellaria, Monogenea, Trematoda, and Cestoda ((Figure)). However, the relationships among members of these classes has recently been reassessed, with the turbellarians in particular now viewed as paraphyletic, since its descendants may also include members of the other three classes. Members of the clade or class Rhabditophora are now dispersed among multiple orders of Platyhelminthes, the most familiar of these being the Polycladida, which contains the large marine flatworms; the Tricladida (which includes Dugesia [“planaria”] and Planaria and its relatives); and the major parasitic orders: Monogenea (fish ectoparasites), Trematoda (flukes), and Cestoda (tapeworms), which together form a monophyletic clade.

Figure 3. Traditional flatworm classes. Phylum Platyhelminthes was previously divided into four classes. (a) Class Turbellaria includes the free-living polycladid Bedford’s flatworm (Pseudobiceros bedfordi), which is about 8 to 10 cm in length. (b) The parasitic class Monogenea includes Dactylogyrus spp, commonly called gill flukes, which are about 0.2 mm in length and have two anchors, indicated by arrows used to attach the parasite on to the gills of host fish. (c) The class Trematoda includes Fascioloides magna (right) and Fasciola hepatica (two specimens on left, also known as the common liver fluke). (d) Class Cestoda includes tapeworms such as this Taenia saginata, infects both cattle and humans, and can reach 4 to 10 meters in length; the specimen shown here is about four meters long. (credit a: modification of work by Jan Derk; credit d: modification of work by CDC)

Most free-living flatworms are marine polycladids, although tricladid species live in freshwater or moist terrestrial environments, and there are a number of members from other orders in both environments. The ventral epidermis of free-living flatworms is ciliated, which facilitates their locomotion. Some free-living flatworms are capable of remarkable feats of regeneration in which an individual may regrow its head or tail after being severed, or even several heads if the planaria is cut lengthwise.

The monogeneans are ectoparasites, mostly of fish, with simple life cycles that consist of a free-swimming larva that attaches to a fish, prior to its transformation to the ectoparasitic adult form. The parasite has only one host and that host is usually very specific. The worms may produce enzymes that digest the host tissues, or they may simply graze on surface mucus and skin particles. Most monogeneans are hermaphroditic, but the male gametes develop first and so cross-fertilization is quite common.

The trematodes, or flukes, are internal parasites of mollusks and many other groups, including humans. Trematodes have complex life cycles that involve a primary host in which sexual reproduction occurs, and one or more secondary hosts in which asexual reproduction occurs. The primary host is usually a vertebrate and the secondary host is almost always a mollusk, in which multiple larvae are produced asexually. Trematodes, which attached internally to the host via an oral and medial sucker, are responsible for serious human diseases including schistosomiasis, caused by several species of the blood fluke, Schistosoma spp. Various forms of schistosomiasis infect an estimated 200 million people in the tropics, leading to organ damage, secondary infection by bacteria, and chronic symptoms like fatigue. Infection occurs when the human enters the water and metacercaria larvae, released from the snail host, locate and penetrate the skin. The parasite infects various organs in the body and feeds on red blood cells before reproducing.

Many of the eggs are released in feces and find their way into a waterway, where they are able to reinfect the snail host. The eggs, which have a barb on them, can damage the vascular system of the human host, causing ulceration, abscesses, and bloody diarrhea, wherever they reside, thereby allowing other pathogens to cause secondary infections. In fact, it is the parasite’s eggs that produce most of the main ill effects of schistosomiasis. Many eggs do not make the transit through the veins of the host for elimination, and are swept by blood flow back to the liver and other locations, where they can cause severe inflammation. In the liver, the errant eggs may impede circulation and cause cirrhosis. Control is difficult in impoverished areas in unsanitary, crowded conditions, and prognosis is poor in people with heavy infections of Schistosoma japonicum, without early treatment.

The cestodes, or tapeworms, are also internal parasites, mainly of vertebrates ((Figure)). Tapeworms, such as those of Taenia spp, live in the intestinal tract of the primary host and remain fixed using a sucker or hooks on the anterior end, or scolex, of the tapeworm body, which is essentially a colony of similar subunits called proglottids. Each proglottid may contain an excretory system with flame cells, along with reproductive structures, both male and female. Because they are so long and flat, tapeworms do not need a digestive system; instead, they absorb nutrients from the food matter surrounding them in the host’s intestine by diffusion.

Proglottids are produced at the scolex and gradually migrate to the end of the tapeworm; at this point, they are “mature” and all structures except fertilized eggs have degenerated. Most reproduction occurs by cross-fertilization between different worms in the same host, but may also occur between proglottids. The mature proglottids detach from the body of the worm and are released into the feces of the organism. The eggs are eaten by an intermediate host, typically another vertebrate. The juvenile worm infects the intermediate host and takes up residence, usually in muscle tissue. When the muscle tissue is consumed by the primary host, the cycle is completed. There are several tapeworm parasites of humans that are transmitted by eating uncooked or poorly cooked pork, beef, or fish.

Figure 4. Tapeworm life cycle. Tapeworm (Taenia spp.) infections occur when humans consume raw or undercooked infected meat. (credit: modification of work by CDC)

Morphology

Nemerteans vary in size from 1 cm to several meters. They show bilateral symmetry and remarkable contractile properties. Because of their contractility, they can change their morphological presentation in response to environmental cues. Animals in phylum Nemertea are soft and unsegmented animals, with a morphology like a flattened tube. ((Figure)).

Figure 7. A proboscis worm. The proboscis worm (Parborlasia corrugatus) is a scavenger that combs the sea floor for food. The species is a member of the phylum Nemertea. The specimen shown here was photographed in the Ross Sea, Antarctica. (credit: Henry Kaiser, National Science Foundation)

A unique characteristic of this phylum is the presence of an eversible proboscis enclosed in a pocket called a rhynchocoel (not part of the animal’s actual coelom). The proboscis is located dorsal to the gut and serves as a harpoon or tentacle for food capture. In some species it is ornamented with barbs. The rhynchocoel is a fluid-filled cavity that extends from the head to nearly two-thirds of the length of the gut in these animals ((Figure)). The proboscis may be extended by hydrostatic pressure generated by contraction of muscle of the rhynchocoel and retracted by a retractor muscle attached to the rear wall of the rhynchocoel.

Figure 8. The anatomy of a Nemertean is shown.

Digestive System

The nemerteans, which are primarily predators of annelids and crustaceans, have a well-developed digestive system. A mouth opening that is ventral to the rhynchocoel leads into the foregut, followed by the intestine. The intestine is present in the form of diverticular pouches and ends in a rectum that opens via an anus. Gonads are interspersed with the intestinal diverticular pouches and open outward via genital pores.

Nemerteans are sometimes classified as acoels, but because their closed circulatory system is derived from the coelomic cavity of the embryo, they may be regarded as coelomic. Their circulatory system consists of a closed loop formed by a connected pair of lateral blood vessels. Some species may also have a dorsal vessel or cross-connecting vessels in addition to lateral ones. Although the circulatory fluid contains cells, it is often colorless. However, the blood cells of some species bear hemoglobin as well as other yellow or green pigments. The blood vessels are contractile, although there is usually no regular circulatory pathway, and movement of blood is also facilitated by the contraction of muscles in the body wall. The circulation of fluids in the rhychocoel is more or less independent of the blood circulation, although blind branches from the blood vessels into the rhyncocoel wall can mediate exchange of materials between them. A pair of protonephridia, or excretory tubules, is present in these animals to facilitate osmoregulation. Gaseous exchange occurs through the skin.

Nervous System

Nemerteans have a “brain” composed of four ganglia situated at the anterior end, around the rhynchocoel. Paired longitudinal nerve cords emerge from the brain ganglia and extend to the posterior end. Additional nerve cords are found in some species. Interestingly, the brain can contain hemoglobin, which acts as an oxygen reserve. Ocelli or eyespots are present in pairs, in multiples of two in the anterior portion of the body. It is speculated that the eyespots originate from neural tissue and not from the epidermis.

Reproduction

Nemerteans, like flatworms, have excellent powers of regeneration, and asexual reproduction by fragmentation is seen in some species. Most animals in phylum Nemertea are dioecious, although freshwater species may be hermaphroditic. Stem cells that become gametes aggregate within gonads placed along the digestive tract. Eggs and sperm are released into the water, and fertilization occurs externally. Like most lophotrochozoan protostomes, cleavage is spiral, and development is usually direct, although some species have a trochophore-like larva, in which a young worm is constructed from a series of imaginal discs that begin as invaginations from the body surface of the larva.