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

理解蜱传疾病生态学的一个关键障碍是识别蜱虫赖以为生的特定脊椎动物或宿主。每种宿主都具有潜在的重要性，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的病原体传播。这篇博士论文的改进项目将采用现有的分子技术来扩增以前蜱血餐中的DNA痕迹，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寻找宿主蜱中细菌群落组成的影响。这些信息将有助于解释蜱虫之间细菌群落的变化，并预测环境中感染性蜱虫的丰度和分布。测定开发和测试将使用孤独的星星蜱，这是美国大陆三分之二地区最常见的叮咬人类和动物的蜱。它是已知的几种人类和兽医病原体的载体，也是许多其他细菌的载体，这些细菌在疾病传播中的重要性尚不清楚。血粉分析的新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有价值的工具，例如许多医学和经济上重要的蜱类物种。 该分析通过利用DNA测序技术的最新进展来建立和增加样品通量来提高效率。该项目将对本科生进行涉及生态学和分子方法的现场和实验室研究培训。最后，研究人员向格鲁吉亚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.