title: Identifying sources of tick blood meals using unidentified tandem mass spectral libraries.
abstract: Rapid and reliable identification of the vertebrate species on which a disease vector previously parasitized is imperative to study ecological factors that affect pathogen distribution and can aid the development of public health programs. Here we describe a proteome profiling technique designed to identify the source of blood meals of haematophagous arthropods. This method employs direct spectral matching and thus does not require a priori knowledge of any genetic or protein sequence information. Using this technology, we detect remnants of blood in blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) and correctly determine the vertebrate species from which the blood was derived, even 6 months after the tick had fed. This biological fingerprinting methodology is sensitive, fast, cost-effective and can potentially be adapted for other biological and medical applications when existing genome-based methods are impractical or ineffective.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19014-6019, USA.
authors.forename: Özlem
authors.initials: Ö
authors.lastname: Önder
authors.forename: Wenguang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.forename: Brian D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Kemps
authors.forename: Henry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lam
authors.forename: Dustin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Brisson
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D007814:Larva / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D018978:Molting; D019151:Peptide Library; D020543:Proteome / Q000378:metabolism; D040901:Proteomics / Q000379:methods*; D013045:Species Specificity; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D013987:Ticks / Q000502:physiology*; D014714:Vertebrates / Q000469:parasitology
chemical_list: D019151:Peptide Library; D020543:Proteome