Microbiota-driven vaccination in soft ticks: Implications for survival, fitness and reproductive capabilities in Ornithodoros moubata.

The Ornithodoros moubata (Om) soft tick, a vector for diseases like tick-borne human relapsing fever and African swine fever, poses challenges to conventional control methods. With diminishing insecticide efficacy, harnessing the tick's microbiota through innovative approaches like microbiota-driven vaccination emerges as a promising strategy for sustainable and targeted disease control. This study investigated the intricate relationship between Pseudomonas, a keystone taxon in the Om microbiome, and its impact on tick fitness, microbiome structure and network dynamics.

First Data on Aquaporins: Structural, Phylogenetic and Immunogenic Characterisation as Vaccine Targets.

transmits African swine fever and human relapsing fever in Africa. The elimination of populations from anthropic environments is expected to improve the prevention and control of these diseases. Tick vaccines have emerged as a sustainable method for tick control, and tick aquaporins (AQPs) are promising targets for tick vaccines due to their vital functions, immunogenicity and ease of access by neutralising host antibodies.

First molecular and functional characterisation of ferritin 2 proteins from Ornithodoros argasid ticks.

Ferritins are iron-binding proteins that play critical functions in iron metabolism. Tick ferritins are essential in blood feeding, reproduction, iron transport, and protection of ticks from the iron-mediated oxidative stress during blood feeding and digestion. In ixodids, ferritin 2 (Fer2) is responsible for iron transport into peripheral tissues, it is critically involved in tick reproduction and has been identified as a good candidate antigen to be included in anti-tick vaccines.

Proteomics informed by transcriptomics for a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the sialoproteome of adult Ornithodoros moubata ticks.

Background: The argasid tick Ornithodoros moubata is the main vector in mainland Africa of African swine fever virus and the spirochete Borrelia duttoni, which causes human relapsing fever. The elimination of populations of O. moubata would contribute to the prevention and control of these two serious diseases.

Application of a Genus-Specific LAMP Assay for Schistosome Species to Detect x Hybrids.

Schistosomiasis is a disease of great medical and veterinary importance in tropical and subtropical regions caused by different species of parasitic flatworms of the genus . The emergence of natural hybrids of schistosomes indicate the risk of possible infection to humans and their zoonotic potential, specifically for and . Hybrid schistosomes have the potential to replace existing species, generate new resistances, pathologies and extending host ranges.

Sialotranscriptomics of the argasid tick Ornithodoros moubata along the trophogonic cycle.

The argasid tick Ornithodoros moubata is the main vector of human relapsing fever (HRF) and African swine fever (ASF) in Africa. Salivary proteins are part of the host-tick interface and play vital roles in the tick feeding process and the host infection by tick-borne pathogens; they represent interesting targets for immune interventions aimed at tick control. The present work describes the transcriptome profile of salivary glands of O.

Set up of an in vitro model to study early host-parasite interactions between newly excysted juveniles of Fasciola hepatica and host intestinal cells using a quantitative proteomics approach.

Fasciola hepatica is the causative agent of fasciolosis, a parasitic zoonosis of global distribution causing significant economic losses in animal production and a human public health problem in low-income countries. Hosts are infected by ingestion of aquatic plants carrying metacercariae. Once ingested, the juvenile parasites excyst in the small intestine and, after crossing it, they follow a complex migratory route that lead the parasites to their definitive location in the bile ducts.

Local adaptation in natural European host grass populations with asymmetric symbiosis.

Recent work on microbiomes is revealing the wealth and importance of plant-microbe interactions. Microbial symbionts are proposed to have profound effects on fitness of their host plants and vice versa, especially when their fitness is tightly linked. Here we studied local adaptation of host plants and possible fitness contribution of such symbiosis in the context of abiotic environmental factors.

Whole-genome sequence of the bovine blood fluke Schistosoma bovis supports interspecific hybridization with S. haematobium.

Mesenteric infection by the parasitic blood fluke Schistosoma bovis is a common veterinary problem in Africa and the Middle East and occasionally in the Mediterranean Region. The species also has the ability to form interspecific hybrids with the human parasite S. haematobium with natural hybridisation observed in West Africa, presenting possible zoonotic transmission.

De novo assembly and analysis of midgut transcriptome of the argasid tick Ornithodoros erraticus and identification of genes differentially expressed after blood feeding.

Ticks are hematophagous vectors of great medical and veterinary importance because they transmit numerous pathogenic microorganisms to humans and animals. The argasid Ornithodoros erraticus is the main vector of tick-borne human relapsing fever and African swine fever in the Mediterranean Basin. Tick enterocytes express bioactive molecules that perform key functions in blood digestion, feeding, toxic waste processing and pathogen transmission.

Pathological, immunological and parasitological study of sheep vaccinated with the recombinant protein 14-3-3z and experimentally infected with Fasciola hepatica.

In this study, the immunogenicity and protective capacity of a new recombinant vaccine candidate, the rFh14-3-3z protein was analysed in sheep experimentally challenged with Fasciola hepatica, in terms of fluke burden, faecal egg counts, hepatic damage and humoral immune response. Three groups of 8 animals each were used for study, group 1 was immunised with the rFh14-3-3z in Montanide adjuvant, whereas group 2 and 3 remained as adjuvant control and infection control groups, respectively. The parasitological analysis showed that no significant reduction in fluke burden, fluke size and faecal egg counts was detected.

Geochemical Background and Baseline Values Determination and Spatial Distribution of Heavy Metal Pollution in Soils of the Andes Mountain Range (Cajamarca-Huancavelica, Peru).

Concentrations of seven heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn) and one metalloid (As) as well as various parameters (pH, organic carbon, granulometric analysis and cation exchange capacity) were analyzed in 77 soil samples collected in the mining areas of La Zanja and Colquirrumi (Department of Cajamarca) and Julcani (Department of Huancavelica). Our study proposed geochemical baseline values for heavy metals in a natural region (La Zanja) from samples collected during the period of the environmental impact study (2006), that is, from an earlier period which occurred at the beginning of the exploitation of the current gold mine. The baseline values obtained were as follows: 8.

A proteomic insight into the midgut proteome of Ornithodoros moubata females reveals novel information on blood digestion in argasid ticks.

Background: The argasid tick Ornithodoros moubata is the main African vector of the human relapsing fever agent Borrelia duttoni and the African swine fever virus. Together with saliva, the tick midgut forms part of the host-tick-pathogen interface, and numerous midgut proteins play key functions in the blood digestion-related process and the infection and transmission of pathogens. This work explores the composition of the midgut proteome of unfed and fed O.

Spatial Distribution of Heavy Metals and the Environmental Quality of Soil in the Northern Plateau of Spain by Geostatistical Methods.

The environmental quality of soil in the central part of the Northern Plateau of Spain has been analyzed by studying the heavy metal content of 166 samples belonging to the horizons A, B and C of 89 soil profiles. The analysis to assess the environmental risk of heavy metals in the soil was carried out by means of the spatial distribution of nine heavy metals and the use of several pollution indices. The results showed that the concentration values of heavy metals (x ± S) in the superficial soil horizons were the following: With a total of 6.

Functional annotation and analysis of the Ornithodoros moubata midgut genes differentially expressed after blood feeding.

The argasid tick Ornithodoros moubata is the main vector of the African swine fever and the human relapsing fever in Africa. As part of the host-parasite-pathogen interface, the tick midgut expresses key proteins for tick survival and tick-borne pathogen transmission. Accordingly, midgut proteins are potential targets for the development of new drugs and vaccines aimed at tick control, and obtaining proteomic and transcriptomic data from the O.

Qualitative and quantitative analysis of endophyte alkaloids in perennial ryegrass using near-infrared spectroscopy.

Background: Near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) has been widely used in forage quality control because it is faster, cleaner and less expensive than conventional chemical procedures. In Lolium perenne (perennial ryegrass), one of the most important forage grasses, the infection by asymptomatic Epichloë fungal endophytes alters the plant nutritional quality due to the production of alkaloids. In this research, we developed a rapid method based on NIRS to detect and quantify endophyte alkaloids (peramine, lolitrem B and ergovaline) using a heterogeneous set of L.

Pseudomonas coleopterorum sp. nov., a cellulase-producing bacterium isolated from the bark beetle Hylesinus fraxini.

We isolated a strain coded Esc2Am(T) during a study focused on the microbial diversity of adult specimens of the bark beetle Hylesinus fraxini. Its 16S rRNA gene sequence had 99.4% similarity with respect to its closest relative, Pseudomonas rhizosphaerae IH5(T).

Prevalence and diversity of viruses in the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana.

Viruses have been discovered in numerous fungal species, but unlike most known animal or plant viruses, they are rarely associated with deleterious effects on their hosts. The knowledge about viruses among entomopathogenic fungi is very limited, although their existence is suspected because of the presence of virus-like double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) in isolates of several species. Beauveria bassiana is one of the most-studied species of entomopathogenic fungi; it has a cosmopolitan distribution and is used as a biological control agent against invertebrates in agriculture.

Behavior of phenols and phenoxyacids on a bisphenol-A imprinted polymer. Application for selective solid-phase extraction from water and urine samples.

A molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP), obtained by precipitation polymerisation with 4-vinylpyridine as the functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as cross-linker, and bisphenol-A (BPA) as template, was prepared. The binding site configuration of the BPA-MIP was examined using Scatchard analysis. Moreover, the behaviour of the BPA-MIP for the extraction of several phenolic compounds (bisphenol-A, bisphenol-F, 4-nitrophenol, 3-methyl-4-nitrophenol) and phenoxyacid herbicides such as 2,4-D, 2,4,5-T and 2,4,5-TP has been studied in organic and aqueous media in the presence of other pesticides in common use.