Transcriptome-based phylogeny of ticks of the genus Ixodes
Ticks (Ixodes acuminatus) were sampled on captured wild wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) in 2013, at Pleine-Fougres, France, by Dr Olivier Plantard. Ticks sampled were either engorging nymphs, or non-engorged nymphs found on the rodent body. Part of the fully-engorged nymphs were kept live at the lab, were they were allowed to molt as adults (males or females). All material was flash frozen until extraction in 2013. RNA extraction was performed independently for four conditions (engorged nymphs, non-engorged nymphs, non-engorged adult males, non-engorged adult females), and an equimolar mix was used to produce a single final sample.  For all conditions RNA was extracted from whole bodies with a Trizol protocol, using two DNAse treatments. The library was prepared using the Truseq Stranded kit (v4), and was sequenced on one lane of Illumina HiSeq 2500 along with other tick samples (different samples of the species Ixodes ricinus).