Expression Profiles in Infected With .

The gene is widely disseminated in various organisms and has a pivotal role in the regulation of pathogen infection in blood-sucking arthropods. However, to date, information on the gene from the tick, an important vector of human and animal diseases, remains unknown. In this study, we identified the gene from and evaluated its expression levels in -infected and -uninfected ticks at developmental stages. We also analyzed functions in relation to both tick blood feeding and infection and the relationship between and -related apoptosis genes such as (), (), (), and (). The coding nucleotide sequence of cDNA was found to be 849 bp in length and encoded 282 amino acids. Domain analysis showed the protein to contain six determinants of voltage gating and two polypeptide binding sites. mRNA levels were not significantly different between 1-day-laid and 7-day-laid eggs. In the nymphal stage, higher expression levels were found in unfed, 12-h-partially-fed (12 hPF), 1-day-partially-fed (1 dPF), 2 dPF nymphs and nymphs at 0 day post-engorgement (0 dAE) vs. nymphs at 2 dAE. and mRNA levels were higher in 2 dPF nymphs in contrast to nymphs at 2 dAE. expression levels appeared to be higher in the infected vs. uninfected nymphs during blood feeding except at 1 dPF and 0-1 dAE. Especially, the highest burden negatively affected mRNA levels in both nymphs and female adults. knockdown affected body weight and infection levels and significantly downregulated the expression levels of and in female ticks. In addition, this study showed that infection levels of the Gray strain in nymphal and female peaked at or around engorgement from blood feeding to post engorgement. Taken together, the research conducted in this study suggests that might interfere with blood feeding and infection.