Variation in the Microbiota of Ixodes Ticks with Regard to Geography, Species, and Sex

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Citation

Van Treuren, Will; Ponnusamy, Loganathan; Brinkerhoff, R. Jory; Gonzalez, Antonio; Parobek, Christian M.; Juliano, Jonathan J.; Andreadis, Theodore G.; Falco, Richard C.; Ziegler, Lorenza Beati; & Hathaway, Nicholas J., et al. (2015). Variation in the Microbiota of Ixodes Ticks with Regard to Geography, Species, and Sex. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 81(18), 6200-6209. PMCID: PMC4542252

Abstract

Ixodes scapularis is the principal vector of Lyme disease on the East Coast and in the upper Midwest regions of the United States, yet the tick is also present in the Southeast, where Lyme disease is absent or rare. A closely related species, I. affinis, also carries the pathogen in the South but does not seem to transmit it to humans. In order to better understand the geographic diversity of the tick, we analyzed the microbiota of 104 adult I. scapularis and 13 adult I. affinis ticks captured in 19 locations in South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Connecticut, and New York. Initially, ticks from 4 sites were analyzed by 454 pyrosequencing. Subsequently, ticks from these sites plus 15 others were analyzed by sequencing with an Illumina MiSeq machine. By both analyses, the microbiomes of female ticks were significantly less diverse than those of male ticks. The dissimilarity between tick microbiomes increased with distance between sites, and the state in which a tick was collected could be inferred from its microbiota. The genus Rickettsia was prominent in all locations. Borrelia was also present in most locations and was present at especially high levels in one site in western Virginia. In contrast, members of the family Enterobacteriaceae were very common in North Carolina I. scapularis ticks but uncommon in I. scapularis ticks from other sites and in North Carolina I. affinis ticks. These data suggest substantial variations in the Ixodes microbiota in association with geography, species, and sex.

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/aem.01562-15

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year Published

2015

Journal Title

Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Author(s)

Van Treuren, Will
Ponnusamy, Loganathan
Brinkerhoff, R. Jory
Gonzalez, Antonio
Parobek, Christian M.
Juliano, Jonathan J.
Andreadis, Theodore G.
Falco, Richard C.
Ziegler, Lorenza Beati
Hathaway, Nicholas J.
Keeler, Corinna
Emch, Michael E.
Bailey, Jeffrey A.
Roe, R. Michael
Apperson, Charles S.
Knight, Rob
Meshnick, Steven R.

PMCID

PMC4542252

ORCiD

Emch - 0000-0003-2642-965X
Keeler - 0000-0002-3445-6589