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Nutrition and Biosynthesis

  • Chapter
Biochemistry of Parasitic Helminths

Abstract

Parasites often grow extremely rapidly and can produce large numbers of eggs or larvae. A female A. lumbricoides, for example, lays 1.6 × 106 eggs per day and a developing tapeworm, H. diminuta, increases its weight 2 × 104 fold in 10 days. This gives some indication of the high synthetic rates of which parasites are capable. However, although synthetic pathways are well developed quantitatively in helminths, the range of compounds that they synthesise is relatively limited.

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  1. Department of Zoology, The University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, Dyfed, UK

    John Barrett

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© 1981 John Barrett

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Barrett, J. (1981). Nutrition and Biosynthesis. In: Biochemistry of Parasitic Helminths. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-86119-4_4

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