Fig.1

Life cycle and genomic characteristics of S. mekongi. A The life cycle of S. mekongi is similar to other blood flukes. Firstly, eggs are expelled from the definitive hosts (humans, dogs, pigs, cattle and rodents, etc.), then hatch and release miracidia under favorable conditions. Secondly, miracidia penetrate snail host tissue, develop into sporocysts, and are released as cercariae. Finally, cercariae encounter a definitive host, enter via skin penetration and develop into schistosomulae and subsequently adults; B genomic features of S. mekongi. Layers from outer to inner represent transposable elements (TEs) coverage (a), gene coverage (b), noncoding RNA (c), guanine-cytosine (GC) content (d), sequence depth (e) and conservation score (f). Blocks that are conserved among four human blood flukes [using chromosome 1 (Chr1) of S. mekongi as a reference] but conserved in three early-diverging species (Trichobilharzia regenti, S. japonicum and S. mekongi) are shaded in yellow in the inner circle