blood feeding Ixodes persulcatus
Each pooled sample, unfed, semi-engorged and engorged mated female ticks, was pulverized thoroughly in liquid nitrogen, and then subjected to total RNA extraction using TRIZOL. Further, the extracted RNA was treated with DNase to remove any genomic contamination. After confirming the quality of total RNA of each sample, they were pooled at equimolar concentration to obtain an integrated gene expression patterns.The cDNA library was constructed in accordance with Illumina manufacturer’s instruments.