The Transcriptome of the Salivary Glands of Reveals the Antimicrobial Peptide Microplusin as an Important Factor for the Tick Protection Against Infection.

The salivary glands (SG) of ixodid ticks play a pivotal role in blood feeding, producing both the cement and the saliva. The cement is an adhesive substance that helps the attachment of the tick to the host skin, while the saliva contains a rich mixture of antihemostatic, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory substances that allow ticks to properly acquire the blood meal. The tick saliva is also a vehicle used by several pathogens to be transmitted to the vertebrate host, including various bacterial species from the genus .

The Distinct Transcriptional Response of the Midgut of and Ticks to Correlates to Their Differences in Susceptibility to Infection.

is a tick-borne obligate intracellular bacterium that causes Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF). In Brazil, two species of ticks in the genus and , are incriminated as vectors of this bacterium. Importantly, these two species present remarkable differences in susceptibility to infection, where is more susceptible than .