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

论文研究：血粉来源作为蜱虫媒介 AMBLYOMMA AMERICANUM 中细菌群落动态的生态决定因素

• 批准号: 1311450
• 负责人: Thomas Gillespie
• 金额: $ 2.01万
• 依托单位: Emory University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-06-01 至 2014-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1311450&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Blood; meal; source

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.

理解tick传播疾病生态的关键障碍是识别特定的脊椎动物或宿主，tick虫在其上。每个宿主具有潜在的重要性，因为不同的物种包含不同的营养成分，免疫系统分子和可能影响tick病原体传播的微生物。该博士学位论文改进项目将适应现有的分子技术，以扩大先前tick味血液粉的DNA的痕量残留物，以确定过去的宿主使用。然后，将使用基因测序方法来确定先前宿主对宿主寻求tick中细菌群落组成的影响。这些信息将有助于解释壁虱之间细菌群落的变化，并预测环境中传染性壁虱的丰度和分布。测定开发和测试将使用孤星壁虱，这是美国大陆三分之二的最常见的tick虫咬人的人和动物。它是几种人类和兽医病原体的已知载体，也是许多其他细菌的载体，其在疾病传播中的意义尚不清楚。开发一种新的血液膳食分析方法将为所有研究血液喂养性节肢动物的生态学的研究人员提供宝贵的工具，例如许多医学上和经济上重要的壁虱。 该测定方法通过利用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。该项目将培训涉及生态和分子方法的现场和实验室研究的本科生。最后，研究人员向佐治亚州几个州立公园的工作人员和游客提出了结果。