Tick Haller's Organ, a New Paradigm for Arthropod Olfaction: How Ticks Differ from Insects.

ABSTRACT: Ticks are the vector of many human and animal diseases; and host detection is critical to this process. Ticks have a unique sensory structure located exclusively on the 1st pairs of legs; the fore-tarsal Haller's organ, not found in any other animals, presumed to function like the insect antennae in chemosensation but morphologically very different. The mechanism of tick chemoreception is unknown. Utilizing next-generation sequencing and comparative transcriptomics between the 1st and 4th legs (the latter without the Haller's organ), we characterized 1st leg specific and putative Haller's organ specific transcripts from adult American dog ticks, Dermacentor variabilis. The analysis suggested that the Haller's organ is involved in olfaction, not gustation. No known odorant binding pr

SUBMITTER: Carr AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5536051 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature