Aleksandra Iwona Krawczyk1,2, Sam Röttjers3, Maria João Coimbra-Dores4, Dieter Heylen5,6, Manoj Fonville7, Willem Takken8, Karoline Faust3, Hein Sprong9. 1. Centre for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Antonie van Leeuwenhoeklaan 9, 3720 MA, Bilthoven, The Netherlands. aleksandra.i.krawczyk@gmail.com. 2. Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University & Research, 6708PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands. aleksandra.i.krawczyk@gmail.com. 3. Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, Laboratory of Molecular Bacteriology, KU Leuven, Rega Institute for Medical Research, 3000, Leuven, Belgium. 4. Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM), Departamento de Biologia Animal, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal. 5. Interuniversity Institute for Biostatistics and Statistical Bioinformatics, Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium. 6. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, 106A Guyot Ln, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA. 7. Centre for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Antonie van Leeuwenhoeklaan 9, 3720 MA, Bilthoven, The Netherlands. 8. Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University & Research, 6708PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands. 9. Centre for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Antonie van Leeuwenhoeklaan 9, 3720 MA, Bilthoven, The Netherlands. hein.sprong@rivm.nl.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Microbial communities can affect disease risk by interfering with the transmission or maintenance of pathogens in blood-feeding arthropods. Here, we investigated whether bacterial communities vary between Ixodes ricinus nymphs which were or were not infected with horizontally transmitted human pathogens. METHODS: Ticks from eight forest sites were tested for the presence of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, Babesia spp., Anaplasma phagocytophilum, and Neoehrlichia mikurensis by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), and their microbiomes were determined by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Tick bacterial communities clustered poorly by pathogen infection status but better by geography. As a second approach, we analysed variation in tick microorganism community structure (in terms of species co-infection) across space using hierarchical modelling of species communities. For that, we analysed almost 14,000 nymphs, which were tested for the presence of horizontally transmitted pathogens B. burgdorferi s.l., A. phagocytophilum, and N. mikurensis, and the vertically transmitted tick symbionts Rickettsia helvetica, Rickettsiella spp., Spiroplasma ixodetis, and Candidatus Midichloria mitochondrii. RESULTS: With the exception of Rickettsiella spp., all microorganisms had either significant negative (R. helvetica and A. phagocytophilum) or positive (S. ixodetis, N. mikurensis, and B. burgdorferi s.l.) associations with M. mitochondrii. Two tick symbionts, R. helvetica and S. ixodetis, were negatively associated with each other. As expected, both B. burgdorferi s.l. and N. mikurensis had a significant positive association with each other and a negative association with A. phagocytophilum. Although these few specific associations do not appear to have a large effect on the entire microbiome composition, they can still be relevant for tick-borne pathogen dynamics. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our results, we propose that M. mitochondrii alters the propensity of ticks to acquire or maintain horizontally acquired pathogens. The underlying mechanisms for some of these remarkable interactions are discussed herein and merit further investigation. Positive and negative associations between and within horizontally and vertically transmitted symbionts.
BACKGROUND: Microbial communities can affect disease risk by interfering with the transmission or maintenance of pathogens in blood-feeding arthropods. Here, we investigated whether bacterial communities vary between Ixodes ricinus nymphs which were or were not infected with horizontally transmitted human pathogens. METHODS: Ticks from eight forest sites were tested for the presence of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, Babesia spp., Anaplasma phagocytophilum, and Neoehrlichia mikurensis by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), and their microbiomes were determined by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Tick bacterial communities clustered poorly by pathogen infection status but better by geography. As a second approach, we analysed variation in tick microorganism community structure (in terms of species co-infection) across space using hierarchical modelling of species communities. For that, we analysed almost 14,000 nymphs, which were tested for the presence of horizontally transmitted pathogens B. burgdorferi s.l., A. phagocytophilum, and N. mikurensis, and the vertically transmitted tick symbionts Rickettsia helvetica, Rickettsiella spp., Spiroplasma ixodetis, and Candidatus Midichloria mitochondrii. RESULTS: With the exception of Rickettsiella spp., all microorganisms had either significant negative (R. helvetica and A. phagocytophilum) or positive (S. ixodetis, N. mikurensis, and B. burgdorferi s.l.) associations with M. mitochondrii. Two tick symbionts, R. helvetica and S. ixodetis, were negatively associated with each other. As expected, both B. burgdorferi s.l. and N. mikurensis had a significant positive association with each other and a negative association with A. phagocytophilum. Although these few specific associations do not appear to have a large effect on the entire microbiome composition, they can still be relevant for tick-borne pathogen dynamics. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our results, we propose that M. mitochondrii alters the propensity of ticks to acquire or maintain horizontally acquired pathogens. The underlying mechanisms for some of these remarkable interactions are discussed herein and merit further investigation. Positive and negative associations between and within horizontally and vertically transmitted symbionts.
Authors: Christopher D Paddock; Amy M Denison; Michael W Dryden; Bruce H Noden; R Ryan Lash; Sarah S Abdelghani; Anna E Evans; Aubree R Kelly; Joy A Hecht; Sandor E Karpathy; Roman R Ganta; Susan E Little Journal: Ticks Tick Borne Dis Date: 2015-03-13 Impact factor: 3.744
Authors: Guan-Hong Wang; Jie Du; Chen Yi Chu; Mukund Madhav; Grant L Hughes; Jackson Champer Journal: Trends Genet Date: 2022-03-21 Impact factor: 11.821