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- Title
Identification of tick-borne pathogen diversity by metagenomic analysis in <italic>Haemaphysalis longicornis</italic> from Xinyang, China.
- Authors
Zhuang, Lu; Du, Juan; Cui, Xiao-Ming; Li, Hao; Tang, Fang; Zhang, Pan-He; Hu, Jian-Gong; Tong, Yi-Gang; Feng, Zhi-Chun; Liu, Wei
- Abstract
Background: A wide variety of pathogens could be maintained and transmitted by <italic>Haemaphysalis longicornis</italic>. The aim of this study is to systematically examine the variety of pathogens carried by <italic>Haemaphysalis longicornis</italic>, an importnatn vector, in tick-borne diseases epidemic area, and to estimate the risk of human infection imposed by tick bites. Methods: Adult questing ticks were collected in Xinyang, central China. Genomic DNA and RNA were extracted from 144 <italic>H. longicornis</italic> ticks individually, and sequenced respectively as the templates for high-throughput sequencing. Clean reads were compared against the database of NCBI nucleotide collection and specific PCR was performed to confirm the presence of pathogen. Phylogenetic analysis was performed to explore the evolutionary status of pathogens. Results: The assignment of reads to taxa based on BLASTN results revealed the existence of several potential pathogens, including <italic>Anaplasma</italic> spp., <italic>Rickettsia</italic> spp., <italic>Babesia</italic> sp., as well as severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome bunyavirus (SFTSV). Comfirmantory PCR assays revealed the existence of <italic>Anaplasma bovis</italic> (13/144, 9.03%), <italic>Anaplasma centrale</italic> (2/144, 1.39%), <italic>Rickettsia heilongjiangensis</italic> (3/144, 2.08%), <italic>Rickettsia</italic> sp. LON-13 (1/144, 0.69%), <italic>Rickettsia raoultii</italic> (5/144, 3.47%), <italic>Babesia</italic> sp. (1/144, 0.69%). SFTSV accounted for the highest detected pathogen with a positive rate of 18.75% (27/144). Three of the ticks (2.08%) were co-infected with SFTSV and <italic>A. bovis.</italic> Conclusion: Our study provided a broadened list of microorganism that harbored by <italic>H. longicornis</italic>. In previously unrecognized endemic regions, prokaryotic and eukaryotic infection including <italic>Anaplasma</italic> spp<italic>.</italic>, <italic>Rickettsiae</italic> spp., and <italic>Babesia</italic> spp<italic>.</italic> should be considered, along with the well-known SFTSV for patients with tick bites history. A novel <italic>Babesia</italic> species was identified in local natural foci, which needs further investigation in the future.
- Subjects
TICK-borne diseases; METAGENOMICS; HAEMAPHYSALIS longicornis
- Publication
Infectious Diseases of Poverty, 2018, Vol 7, Issue 1, pN.PAG
- ISSN
2049-9957
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1186/s40249-018-0417-4