Ponnusamy Loganathan, Travanty Nicholas V, Watson D Wes, Seagle Steven W, Boyce Ross M, Reiskind Michael H
Department of Entomology and Plath Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA.
Department of Biology and Southern Appalachian Environmental Research and Education Center, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC 28608, USA.
Insects. 2024 Feb 24;15(3):153. doi: 10.3390/insects15030153.
Ticks are one of the most important vectors of human and animal disease worldwide. In addition to pathogens, ticks carry a diverse microbiota of symbiotic and commensal microorganisms. In this study, we used next-generation sequencing (NGS) to survey the microbiomes of (Acari: Ixodidae) at different life stages collected from field populations in North Carolina (NC), USA. Sequence analyses were performed using QIIME2 with the DADA2 plugin and taxonomic assignments using the Greengenes database. Following quality filtering and rarefaction, the bacterial DNA sequences were assigned to 4795 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) in 105 ticks. A core microbiome of was conserved across all ticks analyzed, and included bacterial taxa: , , , , , Sphingomonadaceae, Actinomycetales, and . Less abundant bacterial taxa, including and were also identified in some ticks. We discovered some ASVs that are associated with human and animal infections among the identified bacteria. Alpha diversity metrics revealed significant differences in bacterial diversity between life stages. Beta diversity metrics also revealed that bacterial communities across the three life stages were significantly different, suggesting dramatic changes in the microbiome as ticks mature. Based on these results, additional investigation is necessary to determine the significance of the microbiome for animal and human health.
蜱虫是全球人类和动物疾病最重要的传播媒介之一。除病原体外，蜱虫还携带多种共生和共栖微生物的微生物群。在本研究中，我们使用下一代测序（NGS）技术对从美国北卡罗来纳州（NC）野外种群采集的不同生命阶段的硬蜱（蜱螨目：硬蜱科）微生物组进行了调查。使用带有DADA2插件的QIIME2进行序列分析，并使用Greengenes数据库进行分类学赋值。经过质量过滤和稀疏化处理后，在105只蜱虫中，细菌DNA序列被归为4795个扩增子序列变体（ASV）。在所分析的所有蜱虫中，一个核心微生物组是保守的，包括细菌分类群：立克次氏体属、无形体属、埃立克体属、巴通体属、考克斯氏体属、鞘脂单胞菌科、放线菌目和嗜吞噬细胞无形体。在一些蜱虫中还鉴定出了丰度较低的细菌分类群，包括弗朗西斯菌属和巴尔通体属。我们在已鉴定的细菌中发现了一些与人类和动物感染相关的ASV。α多样性指标显示不同生命阶段的细菌多样性存在显著差异。β多样性指标还显示，三个生命阶段的细菌群落存在显著差异，这表明随着蜱虫成熟，其微生物组发生了巨大变化。基于这些结果，有必要进行进一步调查，以确定蜱虫微生物组对动物和人类健康的意义。
