Beating Them with Their Own Stick-Tick Uses Amidase of Bacterial Origin as Part of Its Immune Arsenal.

As vectors of microbial diseases in vertebrates, ticks are excellent at regulating bacterial proliferation in and around them. In a recent issue of Cell, Hayes et al. (2020) reveal acarid toxins of bacterial origin that help eliminate microbes that are pathogenic to black-legged ticks but commensal to their vertebrate hosts.