Midichloria mitochondrii, endosymbiont of Ixodes ricinus: evidence for the transmission to the vertebrate host during the tick blood meal

Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases
Alessandra CafisoChiara Bazzocchi

Abstract

Ticks are important vectors of a variety of pathogens affecting humans and other animals, but they also harbor numerous microorganisms whose role is still limitedly investigated. Ixodes ricinus harbors the endosymbiont Midichloria mitochondrii, which is localized in ovaries and in salivary glands. The bacterium is vertically transmitted and is present in 100% of wild adult females, while prevalence values drop after some generations under laboratory conditions. Molecular and serological evidences showed that M. mitochondrii molecules are transmitted to the vertebrate hosts by I. ricinus during the blood meal. Our work was focused on monitoring M. mitochondrii antigens and DNA in a vertebrate model after infestation with I. ricinus for a time-span of four months. Two groups of rabbits were infested with I. ricinus females, respectively from the wild (naturally infected with the symbiont) and laboratory strain (lab; considered devoid of M. mitochondrii after quantitative PCR investigations) and screened using molecular and serological assays at nine time points. M. mitochondrii presence was detected in rabbits infested with wild I. ricinus ticks, but surprisingly also in those infested with lab ticks, albeit at later time points....Continue Reading

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Citations

Mar 19, 2020·Cellular Microbiology·Fabrizia StavruDavide Sassera
Aug 30, 2019·Transboundary and Emerging Diseases·Timon FischerArd M Nijhof
Jan 23, 2020·Parasites & Vectors·Thomas PolletAgustín Estrada-Peña
Feb 14, 2020·Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases·Siobhon L EganCharlotte L Oskam
Mar 2, 2021·Frontiers in Immunology·Nathalie Boulanger, Stephen Wikel
Apr 13, 2021·Frontiers in Veterinary Science·Alexandra BeliavskaiaLesley Bell-Sakyi
Dec 17, 2021·Microbial Genomics·Siobhon L EganCharlotte L Oskam

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