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Unbiased Characterization of the Microbiome and Virome of Questing Ticks

Due to their vector capacity, ticks are ectoparasites of medical and veterinary significance. Modern sequencing tools have facilitated tick-associated microbiota studies, but these have largely focused on bacterial pathogens and symbionts. By combining 16S rRNA gene sequencing with total RNA-sequenc...

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Autores principales: Chandra, Shona, Harvey, Erin, Emery, David, Holmes, Edward C., Šlapeta, Jan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8153229/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34054743
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.627327
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author Chandra, Shona
Harvey, Erin
Emery, David
Holmes, Edward C.
Šlapeta, Jan
author_facet Chandra, Shona
Harvey, Erin
Emery, David
Holmes, Edward C.
Šlapeta, Jan
author_sort Chandra, Shona
collection PubMed
description Due to their vector capacity, ticks are ectoparasites of medical and veterinary significance. Modern sequencing tools have facilitated tick-associated microbiota studies, but these have largely focused on bacterial pathogens and symbionts. By combining 16S rRNA gene sequencing with total RNA-sequencing methods, we aimed to determine the complete microbiome and virome of questing, female Ixodes holocyclus recovered from coastal, north-eastern New South Wales (NSW), Australia. We present, for the first time, a robust and unbiased method for the identification of novel microbes in ticks that enabled us to identify bacteria, viruses, fungi and eukaryotic pathogens. The dominant bacterial endosymbionts were Candidatus Midichloria sp. Ixholo1 and Candidatus Midichloria sp. Ixholo2. Candidatus Neoehrlichia australis and Candidatus Neoehrlichia arcana were also recovered, confirming that these bacteria encompass I. holocyclus’ core microbiota. In addition, seven virus species were detected—four previously identified in I. holocyclus and three novel species. Notably, one of the four previously identified virus species has pathogenic potential based on its phylogenetic relationship to other tick-associated pathogens. No known pathogenic eukaryotes or fungi were identified. This study has revealed the microbiome and virome of female I. holocyclus from the environment in north-eastern NSW. We propose that future tick microbiome and virome studies utilize equivalent methods to provide an improved representation of the microbial diversity in ticks globally.
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spelling pubmed-81532292021-05-27 Unbiased Characterization of the Microbiome and Virome of Questing Ticks Chandra, Shona Harvey, Erin Emery, David Holmes, Edward C. Šlapeta, Jan Front Microbiol Microbiology Due to their vector capacity, ticks are ectoparasites of medical and veterinary significance. Modern sequencing tools have facilitated tick-associated microbiota studies, but these have largely focused on bacterial pathogens and symbionts. By combining 16S rRNA gene sequencing with total RNA-sequencing methods, we aimed to determine the complete microbiome and virome of questing, female Ixodes holocyclus recovered from coastal, north-eastern New South Wales (NSW), Australia. We present, for the first time, a robust and unbiased method for the identification of novel microbes in ticks that enabled us to identify bacteria, viruses, fungi and eukaryotic pathogens. The dominant bacterial endosymbionts were Candidatus Midichloria sp. Ixholo1 and Candidatus Midichloria sp. Ixholo2. Candidatus Neoehrlichia australis and Candidatus Neoehrlichia arcana were also recovered, confirming that these bacteria encompass I. holocyclus’ core microbiota. In addition, seven virus species were detected—four previously identified in I. holocyclus and three novel species. Notably, one of the four previously identified virus species has pathogenic potential based on its phylogenetic relationship to other tick-associated pathogens. No known pathogenic eukaryotes or fungi were identified. This study has revealed the microbiome and virome of female I. holocyclus from the environment in north-eastern NSW. We propose that future tick microbiome and virome studies utilize equivalent methods to provide an improved representation of the microbial diversity in ticks globally. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-05-12 /pmc/articles/PMC8153229/ /pubmed/34054743 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.627327 Text en Copyright © 2021 Chandra, Harvey, Emery, Holmes and Šlapeta. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Microbiology
Chandra, Shona
Harvey, Erin
Emery, David
Holmes, Edward C.
Šlapeta, Jan
Unbiased Characterization of the Microbiome and Virome of Questing Ticks
title Unbiased Characterization of the Microbiome and Virome of Questing Ticks
title_full Unbiased Characterization of the Microbiome and Virome of Questing Ticks
title_fullStr Unbiased Characterization of the Microbiome and Virome of Questing Ticks
title_full_unstemmed Unbiased Characterization of the Microbiome and Virome of Questing Ticks
title_short Unbiased Characterization of the Microbiome and Virome of Questing Ticks
title_sort unbiased characterization of the microbiome and virome of questing ticks
topic Microbiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8153229/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34054743
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.627327
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