We used nestedness analysis to seek non-random patterns in the structure of component communities of metazoan parasites collected from 31 sympatric fish species from the northeastern Bothnian Bay, the most oligohaline area of the Baltic Sea. Only 8 marine parasite species were found among the 63 species recorded, although some marine fish species reproduce in the bay and others occasionally vis...

Sphingolipids are a diverse and ubiquitous group of lipids. They are widely distributed in parasites and a number of novel forms have been described. Sphingolipid synthesis has been investigated in the malarial parasite, cestodes, digeneans and nematodes. Although there are differences in detail, the synthetic pathways involved are similar to those found in mammals.

Recent studies on microRNA (miRNA) evolution focused mainly on the comparison of miRNA complements between animal clades. However, evolution of miRNAs within such groups is poorly explored despite the availability of comparable data that in some cases lack only a few key taxa. For flatworms (Platyhelminthes), miRNA complements are available for some free-living flatworms and all major parasitic...