Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, UK and Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, UK.
Ticks Tick Borne Dis. 2019 Feb;10(2):470-481. doi: 10.1016/j.ttbdis.2018.11.005. Epub 2018 Nov 12.
Saliva of ticks is arguably the most complex saliva of any animal. This is particularly the case for ixodid species that feed for many days firmly attached to the same skin site of their obliging host. Sequencing and spectrometry technologies combined with bioinformatics are enumerating ingredients in the saliva cocktail. The dynamic and expanding saliva recipe is helping decipher the wonderous activities of tick saliva, revealing how ticks stealthily hide from their hosts while satisfying their gluttony and sharing their individual resources. This review takes a tick perspective on the composition and functions of tick saliva, covering water balance, gasket and holdfast, control of host responses, dynamics, individuality, mate guarding, saliva-assisted transmission, and redundancy. It highlights areas sometimes overlooked - feeding aggregation and sharing of sialomes, and the contribution of salivary gland storage granules - and questions whether the huge diversity of tick saliva molecules is 'redundant' or more a reflection on the enormous adaptability wonderous saliva confers on ticks.
蜱的唾液可以说是所有动物中最复杂的唾液。对于那些在同一宿主的固定皮肤部位上连续吸食多天的硬蜱来说，情况尤其如此。测序和光谱技术与生物信息学相结合，正在对唾液混合物中的成分进行枚举。这种动态和不断扩展的唾液配方正在帮助我们破解蜱唾液的奇妙活动，揭示蜱如何在躲避宿主的同时，满足自己的贪婪，并分享各自的资源。本篇综述从蜱的角度出发，探讨了蜱唾液的组成和功能，涵盖了水平衡、垫圈和固着、宿主反应的控制、动态、个体性、伴侣保护、唾液辅助传播以及冗余性等方面。它强调了一些有时被忽视的领域——聚集进食和唾液组的共享，以及唾液腺储存颗粒的贡献——并质疑蜱唾液分子的巨大多样性是“冗余”的，还是更多地反映了蜱令人惊叹的唾液所赋予的巨大适应性。
