Metabolic disruption impacts tick fitness and microbial relationships.

ABSTRACT: Arthropod-borne microbes rely on the metabolic state of a host to cycle between evolutionarily distant species. For instance, arthropod tolerance to infection may be due to redistribution of metabolic resources, often leading to microbial transmission to mammals. Conversely, metabolic alterations aids in pathogen elimination in humans, who do not ordinarily harbor arthropod-borne microbes. To ascertain the effect of metabolism on interspecies relationships, we engineered a system to evaluate glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation in the tick Ixodes scapularis. Using a metabolic flux assay, we determined that the rickettsial bacterium Anaplasma phagocytophilum and the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, which are transstadially transmitted in nature, induced

SUBMITTER: Samaddar S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10245996 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature