REPRODUCTIVE
SYSTEM OF
FASCIOLA HEPATICA
MALE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM
Consists of testes, vasa deferentia, seminal vesicle, ejaculatory
duct, prostate glands, penis/cirrus and genital atrium.
■ Testis : paired, much branched and tubular structure, situated in
the middle part of the body one behind the other. This
arrangement is called tandem arrangement .
■ Vasa deferentia: narrow, delicate structure emerges out from
each testis, both join to form common sperm duct just below the
ventral sucker .
■ Seminal vesicle: elongated ,muscular ,sac -like structure; stores
sperm during copulation.
■ Ejaculatory duct : fine convoluted tube, passes through the
penis to open into the genital chamber through the male genital
pore .
■ Prostate gland: unicellular gland , releases alkaline secretion
into the ejaculatory duct which provides easy passage to sperms
during copulation .
Penis /cirrus : short ,narrow ,highly muscular, elongated and cylindrical
structure. It can be everted out or drawn in through the genital pore and
thus helps in copulation.
The cirrus, prostate gland and seminal vesicle are enclosed in a bag like
cirrus sac.
FEMALE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM
Consists of ovary/germarium, oviduct, uterus, vitelline gland, mehlis’s gland/
shell gland, laurer’s canal.
Ovary: single, tubular, highly branched, situated on the right side of the
body, in front of testis. It occupies anterior one third of the body.
Oviduct: short and narrow tube, opens into median vitelline duct.
Uterus: wide, convoluted tube at the junction of oviduct and median vitelline
duct. It houses fertilized shelled eggs. Uterus opens into the genital atrium
on the left side by female genital pore. The terminal part is muscular called
metraterm. It helps in ejecting out the eggs. Metraterm sometimes receives
the cirrus during copulation.
female reproductive system continued ……
Vitelline glands: on each side of the body from one end to the other there
are yolk glands/ vitelline glands/ vitellaria. The yolk glands release
albuminous yolk and shell material for the eggs. From each yolk gland a
fine duct arises . They join together and open into the lateral longitudinal
vitelline ducts, 2 in number . The vitelline ducts are connected by a
transverse vitelline duct located in the middle part of the body . The
transverse vitelline duct is swollen in the centre to form the yolk reservoir /
vitelline reservoir . From the Yolk reservoir , a median vitelline duct comes
out and finally joins with the oviduct.
Mehlis’s glands /shell glands : unicellular , numerous , tiny glands ,
surround the junction of median vitelline duct , oviduct and uterus . The
secretion of Mehlis’s gland keep the lumen of the uterus moist and
smooth which fascilitate the passage of eggs in uterus. In addition to this
the secretion activates the spermatozoa to perform fertilization. It
probably also hardens the egg shell.
Laurer’s Canal: arises from the oviduct and acts as a vagina. During
breeding season, it opens on the dorsal body surface at about one-third
distance from the anterior end.
LIFE CYCLE
OF
FASCIOLA HEPATICA
Fasciola hepatica is a digenetic
trematoda as it requires two hosts to
complete its life cycle. The primary host
is sheep/cattle while the secondary host
is a snail of the genus Lymnaea. Fasciola
hepatica exhibits polyembryony which
means that in the life cycle a number of
larval forms arise.
POYLYEMBRYONY
Polyembryony in Fasciola can be studied under
following headings:-
Copulation:
uFasciola is monoecious but cross fertilization is
the rule.
uCopulation occurs in the bile duct of sheep.
uFrom the bile duct sperms along with prostatic
fluid make their way into the oviduct through
laurer’s canal.
FERTILIZATION
Occurs in the lower part of the oviduct.
The yolk gland provides fair amount of yolk and
shell material to the egg.
Fertilized egg move to the uterus where it gets enclosed in a hard sclero-
proteinous capsule/chitinous shell, secreted by Mehlis’s gland .
Quinone makes the egg shell hard.
The shell has an opening called operculum for the exit of larva. Such
eggs are called operculate.
Capsulated egg passes through female genital pore and comes to lie in
the bile duct again.
It is carried to the intestine and finally to outside along with the faeces.
It survives only if it falls in water or on damp soil.
DEVELOPMENT
Indirect
Starts at 75o F temperature.
Holoblastic and unequal cleavage forming large somatic and small
propagatory cells. The somatic cell divides repeatedly to form
ectoderm of the larva. The propagatory cell divides to form two
cells, one of them form the endoderm and mesoderm of the larva
while the other forms germ cells at the posterior end of the larva.
It takes about two to three weeks for the development of a ciliated
miracidium larva.
It comes out through operculum to lead free swimming life.
DEVELOPMENT OF FASCIOLA HEPATICA
u
.
u Minute,0.13 mm long , conical.
Broad anterior end is produced into non-ciliated head
MIRACIDIU lobe/apical lobe/apical papilla. It bears opening for the median
multinucleated saccular apical gland and paired unicellular
M lateral penetration/cephalic gland..
The larva is covered with 21 closely fitted hexagonal ciliated
epidermal plates arranged in five rows (6+6+3+4+2).
Below the epidermal plates of second row lies a brain. Above
the brain there is a pair of X- shaped eye spots placed in
opposite direction.
Below the epidermis lies circular and longitudinal
muscle fibres ,, a pair of protonephridia each with two flame
cells. Protonephridia open to the exterior through
nephridiopores in the posterior half of the body.
Germ cells are present on the posterior part of the body. Germ
balls may be present which are developing embryos.
Miracidium swims freely for about eight hours in search of its
suitable intermediate host which is an amphibious snail usually
Lymnaea truncatula.
As soon as it finds its host , it adheres to it with the help of
apical papilla.
It makes its way to the pulmonary sac and finally
reaches the digestive glands. It metamorphoses into
next stage called sporocyst by loosing its ciliated
covering and sense organs . It changes its shape too.
SPOROCY 0.7 m long , elongated sac-like larva.
ST Body covered with cuticle.
Below the cuticle lies circular and longitudinal
muscle fibres , a pair of protonephridia with two
flame cells each. Protonephridia open to outside
through nephridiopores on the posterior half of the
body.
Germ cells and germ balls are present .
Germ cells divide and undergo cleavage. Gastrula
like structure elongates and develops into third
larval stage called redia larva.
One spotocyst can form 5-8 radiae
parthenogenetically . These come out by rupture in
the body wall called birthpore.
Rarely sporocyst multiplies by transverse binary
fission.
1.3-1.6 mm in length, cylindrical sac-like larva .
REDIA Body covered with thin cuticle.
Below the cuticle lies muscle fibres , mesenchyme, a pair of
protonephridia with four flame cells each. Protonephridia
open to outside one on each side.
Germ cells and germ balls are present.
A redia is provided with small mouth, muscular pharynx with
unicellular pharyngeal glands and small sac-like gut/
intestine.
A circular ridge /collar is present a little behind the mouth. It
is formed by the bulging of the body wall. Collar helps the
larva in movement.
A birthpore is present behind the collar.
Near the posterior end of body, two ventral processes are
present, called Procruscula/ lappets.
During summer , the germ cells develop
parthenogenetically into daughter rediae.
The germ cells of daughter rediae develop into fourth larval
stage, the cercaria larva .
During autumn, the germ cells develop directly into cercaria
which comes out through birthpore.
A single redia gives rise to about 20 cercariae .
CERCARIA 0.5 mm long ,round or oval body with a long contractile tail .
Body covered with cuticle .
The body cavity has numerous peripheral unicellular
cystogenous glands which form cyst around the larva when it
is converted into metacercaria .
The rudiment of reproductive organs , numerous germ cells
and flame cells fill the body cavity . Flame cells are connected
to longitudinal excretory canals of their sides.
Longitudinal excretory canals open posteriorly in a common
excretory vesicle. A median excretory duct arises from the
excretory vesicle . In the tail region it divides into two and open
separately by nephridiopore.
A cercaria larva has well-developed alimentary Canal
consisting of mouth , muscular pharynx , oesophagus and a
bifid intestine .
The mouth is surrounded by oral sucker . A ventral sucker
/acetabulum is also present.
Fully developed cercaria comes out through birthpore of redia
and also out of the body of the snail into surrounding water ,
swim for sometimes and finally settles down on green leaves.
After 3 days it loses its tail , develops cyst all around. The
cercaria in encysted condition is called metacercaria.
It represents Juvenile fluke.
METACERCARIA
Measures 0.2 mm in diameter.
Round body covered with cyst.
Larva is devoid of cystogenous cells.
Body cavity remains filled with germ cells and flame
cells . Excretory vesicle opens to exterior through
single nephridiopore.
Rudiments of reproductive organs are also present.
It has mouth pharynx, oesophagus and bifid intestine.
The mouth remains surrounded by oral sucker. A
ventral sucker is also present.
Metacercaria leads passive life for weeks on grass
and near water . When the sheep grazes on green
grass , metacercaria enters the intestine. Cyst is
dissolved under the influence of digestive enzymes
and young fluke emerges out . It migrates to the bile
duct. It grows into adult in about 6 weeks and repeats
cycle.
