Environmental Drivers of Immature Ixodes scapularis in Minnesota's Metro Area.

Research on the public health significance of Ixodes scapularis ticks in the Midwest seldom focuses on extreme weather conditions that can modulate their population dynamics and ability to transmit pathogenic organisms. In this study, we assessed whether the distributional abundance of I. scapularis immatures is associated with current and time-lagged climatic determinants either directly or indirectly.

Tick extracellular vesicles undermine epidermal wound healing during hematophagy.

Wound healing has been extensively studied through the lens of inflammatory disorders and cancer, but limited attention has been given to hematophagy and arthropod-borne diseases. Hematophagous ectoparasites, including ticks, subvert the wound healing response to maintain prolonged attachment and facilitate blood-feeding. Here, we unveil a strategy by which extracellular vesicles (EVs) ensure blood-feeding and arthropod survival in three medically relevant tick species.

An T4SS effector, AteA, is essential for tick infection.

Ticks are the number one vector of pathogens for livestock worldwide and for humans in the United States. The biology of tick transmission is an understudied area. Understanding this critical interaction could provide opportunities to affect the course of disease spread.

Metagenomic surveillance for bacterial tick-borne pathogens using nanopore adaptive sampling.

Technological and computational advancements in the fields of genomics and bioinformatics are providing exciting new opportunities for pathogen discovery and genomic surveillance. In particular, single-molecule nucleotide sequence data originating from Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) sequencing platforms can be bioinformatically leveraged, in real-time, for enhanced biosurveillance of a vast array of zoonoses. The recently released nanopore adaptive sampling (NAS) strategy facilitates immediate mapping of individual nucleotide molecules to a given reference as each molecule is being sequenced.

Positive associations matter: Microbial relationships drive tick microbiome composition.

Untangling how factors such as environment, host, associations among bacterial species and dispersal predict microbial composition is a fundamental challenge. In this study, we use complementary machine-learning approaches to quantify the relative role of these factors in shaping microbiome variation of the blacklegged tick Ixodes scapularis. I.

An T4SS effector, AteA, is essential for tick infection.

Unlabelled: Pathogens must adapt to disparate environments in permissive host species, a feat that is especially pronounced for vector-borne microbes, which transition between vertebrate hosts and arthropod vectors to complete their lifecycles. Most knowledge about arthropod-vectored bacterial pathogens centers on their life in the mammalian host, where disease occurs. However, disease outbreaks are driven by the arthropod vectors.

Nanopore adaptive sampling for targeted mitochondrial genome sequencing and bloodmeal identification in hematophagous insects.

Background: Blood-feeding insects are important vectors for an array of zoonotic pathogens. While previous efforts toward generating molecular resources have largely focused on major vectors of global medical and veterinary importance, molecular data across a large number of hematophagous insect taxa remain limited. Advancements in long-read sequencing technologies and associated bioinformatic pipelines provide new opportunities for targeted sequencing of insect mitochondrial (mt) genomes.

Tick Artificial Membrane Feeding for Ixodes scapularis.

Ticks and their associated diseases are an important topic of study due to their public health and veterinary burden. However, the feeding requirements of ticks during both study and rearing can limit experimental questions or the ability of labs to research ticks and their associated pathogens. An artificial membrane feeding system can reduce these problems and open up new avenues of research that may not have been possible with traditional animal feeding systems.

Epidemiology, Distribution and Identification of Ticks on Livestock in Pakistan.

Ticks are ectoparasites that transmit a variety of pathogens that cause many diseases in livestock which can result in skin damage, weight loss, anemia, reduced production of meat and milk, and mortality. The aim of this study was to identify tick species and the distribution on livestock hosts (sheep, goat, dairy cattle, and buffalo) of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province and Islamabad from October 2019 to November 2020. Surveillance was performed to calculate the prevalence of ticks on livestock.

Persistence of the invasive bird-parasitic fly Philornis downsi over the host interbreeding period in the Galapagos Islands.

Many parasites of seasonally available hosts must persist through times of the year when hosts are unavailable. In tropical environments, host availability is often linked to rainfall, and adaptations of parasites to dry periods remain understudied. The bird-parasitic fly Philornis downsi has invaded the Galapagos Islands and is causing high mortality of Darwin's finches and other bird species, and the mechanisms by which it was able to invade the islands are of great interest to conservationists.

The Symbiont Inhibits Growth of Pathogenic Rickettsiaceae in Tick Cells: Implications for Vector Competence.

is the primary vector of tick-borne pathogens in North America but notably does not transmit pathogenic species. This tick harbors the transovarially transmitted endosymbiont , which is widespread in populations, suggesting that it confers a selective advantage for tick survival such as providing essential nutrients. The genome includes genes with similarity to those involved in antibiotic synthesis.

Mosquito Guttersnipe: A New Sampling Tool for Roof Gutters, Tree Holes, and Other Elevated Mosquito Habitats.

Mosquitoes pose health risks to human populations by serving as vectors of diseases. Mosquito control organizations are responsible for inspecting and controlling vector populations to reduce the risk of infection of these diseases. Current sampling methods are effective for numerous types of mosquito habitat, but not conducive for sampling small overhead habitat such as roof gutters or tree holes.

Interspecies bacterial communication produces a delicate balance between Vibrio cholerae and the chironomid egg mass microbiome.

The evolution of antimicrobial resistance in bacterial pathogens is considered by the World Health Organization to be one of the ten most concerning public health threats facing humanity (World Health Organization, 2020). Bacterial diseases previously controllable by antibiotics are resurging and treatment options are dwindling. Cholera is one such disease.

Growth Dynamics and Antibiotic Elimination of Symbiotic Rickettsia buchneri in the Tick Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae).

is the principal symbiotic bacterium of the medically significant tick This species has been detected primarily in the ovaries of adult female ticks and is vertically transmitted, but its tissue tropism in other life stages and function with regard to tick physiology is unknown. In order to determine the function of , it may be necessary to produce ticks free from this symbiont. We quantified the growth dynamics of naturally occurring in ticks throughout their life cycle and compared it with bacterial growth in ticks in which symbiont numbers were experimentally reduced or eliminated.

Plant-Derived Natural Compounds for Tick Pest Control in Livestock and Wildlife: Pragmatism or Utopia?

Ticks and tick-borne diseases are a significant economic hindrance for livestock production and a menace to public health. The expansion of tick populations into new areas, the occurrence of acaricide resistance to synthetic chemical treatments, the potentially toxic contamination of food supplies, and the difficulty of applying chemical control in wild-animal populations have created greater interest in developing new tick control alternatives. Plant compounds represent a promising avenue for the discovery of such alternatives.

Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Tick-Borne Diseases in North-Central Wisconsin from 2000-2016.

Lyme disease is a well-recognized public health problem in the USA, however, other tick-borne diseases also have major public health impacts. Yet, limited research has evaluated changes in the spatial and temporal patterns of non-Lyme tick-borne diseases within endemic regions. Using laboratory data from a large healthcare system in north-central Wisconsin from 2000-2016, we applied a Kulldorf's scan statistic to analyze spatial, temporal and seasonal clusters of laboratory-positive cases of human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA), babesiosis, and ehrlichiosis at the county level.

Global Transcription Profiles of at Key Stages of Infection in Tick and Human Cell Lines and Granulocytes.

The incidence of human diseases caused by tick-borne pathogens is increasing but little is known about the molecular interactions between the agents and their vectors and hosts. (Ap) is an obligate intracellular, tick-borne bacterium that causes granulocytic anaplasmosis in humans, dogs, sheep, and horses. In mammals, neutrophil granulocytes are a primary target of infection, and in ticks, Ap has been found in gut and salivary gland cells.

The identification of tick autophagy-related genes in Ixodes scapularis responding to amino acid starvation.

Ticks are obligate hematophagous arthropods and must tolerate starvation during off-host periods. Macroautophagy (hereafter autophagy) is a well-conserved self-eating mechanism of cell survival and is essential for recycling cellular contents during periods of starvation, stress, and injury in organisms. Although the genome sequence of Ixodes scapularis (Say) is available, the characteristics and functions of autophagy-related gene families remain largely unknown.

Isolate from a Minnesota Tick: Characterization and Genetic Transformation.

subsp. is recognized as the etiological agent of human ehrlichiosis in Minnesota and Wisconsin. We describe the culture isolation of this organism from a field-collected tick and detail its relationship to other species of The isolate could be grown in a variety of cultured cell lines and was effectively transmitted between ticks and rodents, with PCR and microscopy demonstrating a broad pattern of dissemination in arthropod and mammalian tissues.

Mutational analysis of gene function in the Anaplasmataceae: Challenges and perspectives.

Mutational analysis is an efficient approach to identifying microbial gene function. Until recently, lack of an effective tool for Anaplasmataceae yielding reproducible results has created an obstacle to functional genomics, because surrogate systems, e.g.

Range Expansion and Increasing Borrelia burgdorferi Infection of the Tick Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae) in Iowa, 1990-2013.

A passive surveillance program monitored ticks submitted by the public in Iowa from 1990-2013. Submitted ticks were identified to species and life stage, and Ixodes scapularis Say nymphs and adults were tested for the presence of Borrelia burgdorferi. An average of 2.

Experimental evaluation of Peromyscus leucopus as a reservoir host of the Ehrlichia muris-like agent.

Background: The Ehrlichia muris-like agent (EMLA) is a newly recognized human pathogen in the North Central United States. Although blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) have been identified as capable vectors, wild reservoirs have not yet been established for EMLA. As key hosts for I.