Ticks bacterial community
Rhipicephalus turanicus
Filed collected questing ticks were preserved in in absolute ethanol -20*C. Ethanol preserd ticks were surfaced sterilizatied, by vortexed for one minute in 3% sodium hypochlorite followed by 70% ethanol, and three washes in sterile 1x PBS. The ticks were then air dried for 10 min before DNA extraction, or stored in absolute ethanol at -20*C until further use. Extraction of total DNA from each individual tick was done with the Qiagen Blood and tissue extraction kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany),