Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama City, Panama
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama City, Panama.
Appl Environ Microbiol. 2021 Mar 11;87(7). doi: 10.1128/AEM.02668-20.
The composition of tick microbiomes varies both within and among tick species. Whether this variation is intrinsic (related to tick characteristics) or extrinsic (related to vertebrate host and habitat) is poorly understood but important, as microbiota can influence the reproductive success and vector competence of ticks. We aimed to uncover what intrinsic and extrinsic factors best explain the microbial composition and taxon richness of 11 species of neotropical ticks collected from eight species of small mammals in 18 forest fragments across central Panama. Microbial richness varied among tick species, life stages, and collection sites but was not related to host blood source. Microbiome composition was best explained by tick life stage, with bacterial assemblages of larvae being a subset of those of nymphs. Collection site explained most of the bacterial taxa with differential abundance across intrinsic and extrinsic factors. and were highly prevalent, but their proportional abundance differed greatly among tick species, and we found both positive and negative cooccurrence between members of these two genera. Other tick endosymbionts (e.g., and ) were associated with specific tick species. In addition, we detected and in several tick species. Our results indicate that the microbial composition and richness of neotropical ticks are principally related to intrinsic factors (tick species and life stage) and collection site. Taken together, our analysis informs how tick microbiomes are structured and can help anchor our understanding of tick microbiomes from tropical environments more broadly. Blood-feeding arthropod microbiomes often play important roles in disease transmission, yet the factors that structure tick microbial communities in the Neotropics are unknown. Utilizing ticks collected from live animals in neotropical forest fragments, this study teases apart the contributions of intrinsic and extrinsic tick-associated factors on tick microbial composition as well as which specific microbes contribute to differences across tick species, tick life stages, the mammals they fed on, and the locations from where they were sampled. Furthermore, this study provides revelations of how notable tick-associated bacterial genera are interacting with other tick-associated microbes as well as the forest animals they encounter.
蜱虫微生物组的组成在蜱种内和种间都存在差异。这种变异是内在的（与蜱的特征有关）还是外在的（与脊椎动物宿主和栖息地有关）尚不清楚，但很重要，因为微生物群会影响蜱的繁殖成功率和媒介能力。我们旨在揭示哪些内在和外在因素能最好地解释在中美洲巴拿马中部 18 个森林片段中从 8 种小哺乳动物中采集的 11 种新热带蜱的微生物组成和分类丰富度。蜱的微生物丰富度在种间、生命阶段和采集地点之间存在差异，但与宿主血液来源无关。微生物组组成受蜱的生命阶段影响最大，幼虫的细菌组合是若虫的子集。通过内在和外在因素的差异，采集地点解释了大多数具有差异丰度的细菌分类群。 和 是高度流行的，但它们在蜱种间的相对丰度差异很大，我们发现这两个属的成员之间存在正相关和负相关。其他蜱内共生体（如 和 ）与特定的蜱种有关。此外，我们在几种蜱种中检测到 和 。我们的研究结果表明，新热带蜱的微生物组成和丰富度主要与内在因素（蜱种和生命阶段）和采集地点有关。总的来说，我们的分析说明了蜱微生物组的结构方式，并有助于更广泛地了解热带环境中的蜱微生物组。吸血节肢动物的微生物组通常在疾病传播中发挥重要作用，但新热带地区蜱微生物群落的结构因素尚不清楚。本研究利用从新热带森林片段中活体动物采集的蜱，剖析了内在和外在与蜱相关的因素对蜱微生物组成的贡献，以及哪些特定的微生物会导致蜱种间、生命阶段、它们所吸食的哺乳动物以及采集地点的差异。此外，本研究揭示了蜱相关细菌属与其他蜱相关微生物以及它们所遇到的森林动物是如何相互作用的。
