Metagenomic sequencing of ticks in China Raw sequence reads
We collected more than 20,000 contemporary and historical (up to 60 years of preservation) tick samples representing a wide range of tick biodiversity across diverse geographic regions in China. Metagenomic sequencing was performed on individual ticks to obtain the complete or near-complete mitochondrial (mt) genome sequences from 46 tick species. These new mt genomes data greatly expanded the diversity of many tick groups and revealed five cryptic species. Utilizing the same metagenomic sequence data we identified divergent and abundant bacteria in ticks. We also used these data to explore the evolutionary relationship between ticks and their associated bacteria, revealing a pattern of long-term co-divergence relationship between ticks and Rickettsia and Coxiella bacteria.