Disruption of blood meal-responsive serpins prevents Ixodes scapularis from feeding to repletion.

ABSTRACT: Serine protease inhibitors (serpins) are thought to mediate the tick's evasion of the host's serine protease-mediated defense pathways such as inflammation and blood clotting. This study describes characterization and target validation of 11 blood meal-responsive serpins that are associated with nymph and adult Ixodes scapularis tick feeding as revealed by quantitative (q)RT-PCR and RNAi silencing analyses. Given the high number of targets, we used combinatorial (co) RNAi silencing to disrupt candidate serpins in two groups (G): seven highly identical and four non-identical serpins based on amino acid identities, here after called GI and GII respectively. We show that injection of both GI and GII co-dsRNA into unfed nymph and adult I. scapularis ticks triggered suppression of cognate serpi

SUBMITTER: Bakshi M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5857477 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature