PRJNA577139
Comparative analysis of midgut microbiota of two natural tick vectors of Rickettsia rickettsii
Despite the ticks Amblyomma sculptum and Amblyomma aureolatum are important vectors of Rickettsia rickettsii, causative agent of the life-threatening Rocky Mountain spotted fever, A. aureolatum is considerably more susceptible to infection than A. sculptum. In the current study, we determined the total number of resident bacteria in the midgut (MG) of infected and non-infected ticks by qPCR. Additionally, the MG microbial community composition was explored using high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene V3-V4 hypervariable regions.