New insights into the impact of microbiome on horizontal and vertical transmission of a tick-borne pathogen

作者：Li-Feng Du, Mingzhu Zhang, Tingting Yuan, Xue-Bing Ni, Wei Wei, Cui Xiao-ming, Ning Wang, Tao Xiong, Jie Zhang, Yu-Sheng Pan, Dai-Yun Zhu, Liang-Jing Li, Luo‐Yuan Xia, Tianhong Wang, Ran Wei, Hongbo Liu, Yi Sun, Lin Zhao, Tommy Tsan‐Yuk Lam, Wu‐Chun Cao, Na Jia · 发表于：Microbiome · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1186/s40168-023-01485-2 · 被引用次数：19 · 研究领域：Vector-borne infectious diseases、Parasites and Host Interactions、Burkholderia infections and melioidosis

BACKGROUND: The impact of host skin microbiome on horizontal transmission of tick-borne pathogens , and of pathogen associated transstadial and transovarial changes in tick microbiome are largely unknown, but are important to control increasingly emerging tick-borne diseases worldwide. METHODS: Focusing on a rickettsiosis pathogen, Rickettsia raoultii, we used R. raoultii-positive and R. raoultii-negative Dermacentor spp. tick colonies to study the involvement of skin microbiota in cutaneous infection with rickettsiae in laboratory mice, and the function of the tick microbiome on maintenance of rickettsiae through all tick developmental stages (eggs, larvae, nymphs, adults) over two generations. RESULTS: We observed changes in the skin bacteria community, such as Chlamydia, not only associated with rickettsial colonization but also with tick feeding on skin. The diversity of skin microbiome differed between paired tick-bitten and un-bitten sites. For vertical transmission, significant differences in the tick microbiota between pathogenic rickettsia-positive and -negative tick chorts was observed across all developmental stages at least over two generations, which appeared to be a common pattern not only for R. raoultii but also for another pathogenic species, Candidatus Rickettsia tarasevichiae. More importantly, bacterial differences were complemented by functional shifts primed for genetic information processing during blood feeding. Specifically, the differences in tick mi...