DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Blood meal source as an ecological determinant of bacterial community dynamics in the tick vector AMBLYOMMA AMERICANUM

了解蜱传疾病的生态学的一个关键障碍是确定蜱赖以为生的特定脊椎动物或宿主。每个宿主都有潜在的重要性，因为不同的物种含有不同的营养物质、免疫系统分子和微生物组合，这些组合可以影响蜱虫传播病原体。这个博士论文改进项目将采用现有的分子技术来扩增以前蜱虫血餐的DNA痕迹，以确定过去的宿主使用。基因测序方法将用于确定先前宿主对寻找宿主蜱细菌群落组成的影响。这一信息将有助于解释蜱中细菌群落的变化，并预测环境中感染性蜱的丰度和分布。试验开发和测试将使用孤星蜱，最常见的蜱叮咬人类和动物在美国大陆的三分之二。它是几种人类和兽医病原体的已知媒介，也是许多其他细菌的携带者，这些细菌在疾病传播中的意义尚不清楚。一种新的血粉分析方法的发展将为所有研究吸血节肢动物生态学的研究人员提供一个有价值的工具，例如许多医学和经济上重要的蜱类。该分析通过利用DNA测序技术的最新进展来提高效率，以建立和增加样品吞吐量。该项目将培养本科生进行涉及生态学和分子方法的实地和实验室研究。最后，研究人员向乔治亚州几个州立公园的工作人员和游客展示了他们的研究结果。

A key obstacle to understanding the ecology of tick-borne diseases is the identification of the specific vertebrate animals, or hosts, on which ticks feed. Each host is potentially important because different species contain different combinations of nutrients, immune system molecules, and microbes that can affect pathogen transmission by the ticks. This doctoral dissertation improvement project will adapt existing molecular techniques to amplify trace remains of DNA from previous tick blood meals in order to determine past host use. Gene sequencing methods will then be used to determine the effect of prior hosts on the composition of bacterial communities in host-seeking ticks. This information will help to explain variation in bacterial communities among ticks and to predict the abundance and distribution of infectious ticks in the environment. Assay development and testing will use the lone star tick, the most common tick biting humans and animals in two thirds of the continental USA. It is the known vector of several human and veterinary pathogens and the carrier of many other bacteria whose significance in disease transmission is not well understood.Development of a new approach to blood meal analysis will provide a valuable tool to all researchers who study the ecology of blood-feeding arthropods, such as many medically and economically important tick species. The assay improves efficiency by exploiting recent advances in DNA sequencing technology to establish and increase sample throughput. The project will train undergraduate students in field and laboratory research involving both ecological and molecular methods. Finally, the researchers present their results to the staff and visitors to several Georgia state parks.