EAGER: Tick-host interactions and the role of host blood meal in pathogen transmission

节肢动物，如蚊子和蜱虫，负责传播影响美国人类的绝大多数传染病。这些节肢动物体内通常含有许多细菌，也称为微生物。我们对这些微生物在疾病传播节肢动物中的作用，或者它们是否以及如何相互作用知之甚少。使用西方黑腿蜱，本研究探讨了内部收集的微生物如何在蜱内发展，以及这些微生物的类型或数量是否对这些节肢动物将致病细菌传播给新宿主的能力产生负面或正面影响。为了了解微生物的集合是如何发展的，蜱虫将被允许以不同的宿主为食，如蜥蜴或小鼠。然后，研究人员将研究这些蜱虫中不同的微生物集合如何影响它们将导致莱姆病的细菌从一个宿主传播到另一个宿主的能力。更好地了解微生物在疾病传播中的作用将有助于开发管理疾病风险和保护野生动物的新视角和战略。该项目还将培训本科生和研究生，并将开发公民科学的机会。公民科学的机会将包括开发一个移动的手机应用程序，使公众能够向科学家提供蜱虫分布和遭遇数据，同时提高公众对蜱虫传播疾病的认识。这项研究具有明确的公共卫生意义，因为莱姆病是美国报告最多的病媒传播疾病。疾病生态学领域的一个新问题是潜在媒介的微生物群落是否可以促进或抑制病原体的传播。 这项研究将重点关注蜱，太平洋硬蜱，这是莱姆病在美国西部的主要载体，并将使用实验室和现场实验相结合，以研究如何喂养不同的宿主物种影响蜱微生物组的发展，并影响肠道发育和微生物传播效率。为了确定宿主血粉对蜱虫微生物组和中肠结构的作用，将使用细菌微生物组的下一代16 S rRNA测序和荧光原位杂交（FISH）技术。为了确定宿主血餐史对伯氏疏螺旋体获得和传播的影响，将使用定量PCR、微生物组分析和可视化技术。通过实验操作和评估结构蜱微生物组的因素，并通过了解微生物在病原体传播中发挥的机制作用，这项研究将促进我们对微生物-媒介相关群落如何形成以及这些关系如何更广泛地影响疾病生态的理解。

Arthropods, like mosquitoes and ticks, are responsible for transmitting the vast majority of infectious diseases that affect humans in the United States. These arthropods often contain within them numerous bacteria that are also called microbes. We know very little about the role of these microbes in disease transmitting arthropods or if and how they interact with one another. Using the western black-legged tick, this study examines how the internal collection of microbes develops within the tick and whether the types or numbers of these microbes negatively or positively influence the ability of these arthropods to transmit disease causing bacteria to new hosts. To understand how a collection of microbes develops, ticks will be allowed to feed on different hosts, such as lizards or mice. Then researchers will examine how the different microbe collections within these ticks influence their ability to transmit the bacteria that causes Lyme disease from one host to another. An improved understanding of the role microbes play in the transmission of diseases will allow for the development of new perspectives and strategies for managing disease risk and conserving wildlife. This project also will train undergraduate and graduate students and will develop citizen science opportunities. The citizen science opportunities will include development of a mobile phone app to allow the public to provide scientists with tick distribution and encounter data while increasing the public's awareness of tick transmitted illnesses. This study has clear public health implications as Lyme disease is the most reported vector-borne disease in the United States. An emerging question in the field of disease ecology is whether the microbial community of potential vectors can facilitate or inhibit the transmission of pathogens. This study will focus on the tick, Ixodes pacificus, which is the main vector of Lyme disease in the western United States, and will use a combination of lab and field experiments to examine how feeding on different host species affects the development of the tick microbiome and influences gut development and microbe transmission efficiency. To determine the role of host blood meal on the tick's microbiome and midgut structure, next generation 16S rRNA sequencing of the bacterial microbiome and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) techniques will be used. To determine the effect of host blood meal history on the acquisition and transmission of Borrelia burgdorferi, quantitative PCR, microbiome analyses, and visualization techniques will be used. By experimentally manipulating and evaluating the factors that structure tick microbiomes and by understanding the mechanistic role that microbes play in pathogen transmission, this study will advance our understanding of how microbe-vector-associated communities are shaped and how these relationships influence disease ecology more broadly.