Genomic Analysis of in the Northern Chihuahuan Desert of Texas and Mexico.

Aedes aegypti, is the primary vector of dengue, Chikungunya, Zika, and yellow fever viruses. Both natural and human-impacted landscapes have selective pressures on Ae. aegypti, resulting in strong genomic structure even within close geographical distances.

The impact of strain-specific immunity on Lyme disease incidence is spatially heterogeneous.

Lyme disease, caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, is the most common tick-borne infection in the US. Recent studies have demonstrated that the incidence of human Lyme disease would have been even greater were it not for the presence of strain-specific immunity, which protects previously infected patients against subsequent infections by the same B. burgdorferi strain.

The thioreduction component CcmG confers efficiency and the heme ligation component CcmH ensures stereo-specificity during cytochrome maturation.

In many Gram-negative bacteria, including cytochrome maturation (Ccm) is carried out by a membrane-integral machinery composed of nine proteins (CcmA to I). During this process, the periplasmic thiol-disulfide oxidoreductase DsbA is thought to catalyze the formation of a disulfide bond between the Cys residues at the apocytochrome heme-binding site (CCH). Subsequently, a Ccm-specific thioreductive pathway involving CcmG and CcmH reduces this disulfide bond to allow covalent heme ligation.

tipdatingbeast: an r package to assist the implementation of phylogenetic tip-dating tests using beast.

Molecular tip dating of phylogenetic trees is a growing discipline that uses DNA sequences sampled at different points in time to coestimate the timing of evolutionary events with rates of molecular evolution. In this context, beast, a program for Bayesian analysis of molecular sequences, is the most widely used phylogenetic tool. Here, we introduce tipdatingbeast, an r package built to assist the implementation of various phylogenetic tip-dating tests using beast.

Public health impact of strain specific immunity to Borrelia burgdorferi.

Background: Lyme disease, caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, is the most common tick-borne infection in the United States. Although humans can be infected by at least 16 different strains of B. burgdorferi, the overwhelming majority of infections are due to only four strains.

Recent and rapid population growth and range expansion of the Lyme disease tick vector, Ixodes scapularis, in North America.

Migration is a primary force of biological evolution that alters allele frequencies and introduces novel genetic variants into populations. Recent migration has been proposed as the cause of the emergence of many infectious diseases, including those carried by blacklegged ticks in North America. Populations of blacklegged ticks have established and flourished in areas of North America previously thought to be devoid of this species.

Evolution and population genomics of the Lyme borreliosis pathogen, Borrelia burgdorferi.

Population genomic studies have the potential to address many unresolved questions about microbial pathogens by facilitating the identification of genes underlying ecologically important traits, such as novel virulence factors and adaptations to humans or other host species. Additionally, this framework improves estimations of population demography and evolutionary history to accurately reconstruct recent epidemics and identify the molecular and environmental factors that resulted in the outbreak. The Lyme disease bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi, exemplifies the power and promise of the application of population genomics to microbial pathogens.

Population structure of the Chagas disease vector Triatoma infestans in an urban environment.

Chagas disease is a vector-borne disease endemic in Latin America. Triatoma infestans, a common vector of this disease, has recently expanded its range into rapidly developing cities of Latin America. We aim to identify the environmental features that affect the colonization and dispersal of T.

Evidence for strain-specific immunity in patients treated for early lyme disease.

Lyme disease, caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, is the most commonly reported vector-borne disease in the United States. Many patients treated for early Lyme disease incur another infection in subsequent years, suggesting that previous exposure to B. burgdorferi may not elicit a protective immune response.

Population structure of the Chagas disease vector, Triatoma infestans, at the urban-rural interface.

The increasing rate of biological invasions resulting from human transport or human-mediated changes to the environment has had devastating ecological and public health consequences. The kissing bug, Triatoma infestans, has dispersed through the Peruvian city of Arequipa. The biological invasion of this insect has resulted in a public health crisis, putting thousands of residents of this city at risk of infection by Trypanosoma cruzi and subsequent development of Chagas disease.

Geographical and environmental factors driving the increase in the Lyme disease vector .

The population densities of many organisms have changed dramatically in recent history. Increases in the population density of medically relevant organisms are of particular importance to public health as they are often correlated with the emergence of infectious diseases in human populations. Our aim is to delineate increases in density of a common disease vector in North America, the blacklegged tick, and to identify the environmental factors correlated with these population dynamics.

Climate and geographic trends in hatch delay of the treehole mosquito, Aedes triseriatus Say (Diptera: Culicidae).

Eggs of Aedes triseriatus mosquitoes are stimulated to hatch when inundated with water, but only a small fraction of eggs from the same batch will hatch for any given stimulus. Similar hatching or germination patterns are observed in desert plants, copepods, rotifers, insects, and many other species. Bet hedging theory suggests that parents stagger offspring emergence into vulnerable life history stages in order to avoid catastrophic reproductive failures.