Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
J Med Entomol. 2012 Jan;49(1):219-22. doi: 10.1603/me11147.
During November 2010, three ticks were collected from three dogs living in the rural area of Arica, northern Chile. Morphological analyses of the ticks in the laboratory revealed that they were most similar to Amblyomma maculatum Koch and Amblyomma triste Koch. However, because of unique metatarsal spurs, neither of the Chilean specimens could be assigned with certainty to A. maculatum or A. triste, based on external morphology. The mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene partial sequences obtained from two Chilean specimens were 99.5% identical to A. triste from Uruguay, and 99.0% identical to A. maculatum from the United States. Through phylogenetic analysis inferred from partial 16S rRNA sequences, the Chilean specimens were classified as A. triste. Molecular analyses also showed that one of the three Chilean ticks was infected by Candidatus 'Rickettsia andeanae'. These findings extend the geographical distribution of A. triste to Chile, where no tick-associated rickettsia had been reported previously.
2010 年 11 月，从智利北部阿里卡农村地区的三只狗身上采集了三只蜱虫。实验室对蜱虫的形态分析表明，它们与美洲钝缘蜱和草原革蜱最为相似。然而，由于独特的跗骨刺，这两种智利标本的外部形态都无法确定属于美洲钝缘蜱或草原革蜱。从两个智利标本中获得的线粒体 16S rRNA 基因部分序列与来自乌拉圭的草原革蜱完全相同，与来自美国的美洲钝缘蜱完全相同。通过部分 16S rRNA 序列推断的系统发育分析，智利标本被分类为草原革蜱。分子分析还表明，三只智利蜱虫中的一只感染了候选“安第斯立克次体”。这些发现将草原革蜱的地理分布扩展到了智利，此前那里没有报告过与蜱虫相关的立克次体。
