title: Comparative microarray analyses of adult female midgut tissues from feeding Rhipicephalus species.
abstract: The cattle tick, Rhipicephalus microplus, has a debilitating effect on the livestock industry worldwide, owing to its being a vector of the causative agents of bovine babesiosis and anaplasmosis. In South Africa, co-infestation with R. microplus and R. decoloratus, a common vector species on local livestock, occurs widely in the northern and eastern parts of the country. An alternative to chemical control methods is sought in the form of a tick vaccine to control these tick species. However, sequence information and transcriptional data for R. decoloratus is currently lacking. Therefore, this study aimed at identifying genes that are shared between midgut tissues of feeding adult female R. microplus and R. decoloratus ticks. In this regard, a custom oligonucleotide microarray comprising of 13,477 R. microplus sequences was used for transcriptional profiling and 2476 genes were found to be shared between these Rhipicephalus species. In addition, 136 transcripts were found to be more abundantly expressed in R. decoloratus and 1084 in R. microplus. Chi-square analysis revealed that genes involved in lipid transport and metabolism are significantly overrepresented in R. microplus and R. decoloratus. This study is the first transcriptional profiling of R. decoloratus and is an additional resource that can be evaluated further in future studies for possible tick control.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
authors.forename: Willem A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: van Zyl
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Stutzer
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Sciences, ACGT Microarray facility, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
authors.forename: Nicholas A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Olivier
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa. Electronic address: christine.maritz@up.ac.za.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Maritz-Olivier
mesh_terms: D000712:Anaplasmosis / Q000382:microbiology; D000818:Animals; D001404:Babesiosis; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D005260:Female; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000469:parasitology; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D048494:Rhipicephalus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D013019:South Africa / Q000453:epidemiology; D013983:Tick Control; D013984:Tick Infestations / Q000469:parasitology / Q000662:veterinary*
keywords: Cattle tick; DNA microarray; Midgut; Rhipicephalus decoloratus; Rhipicephalus microplus