<i>Rickettsia parkeri</i> hijacks tick hemocytes to manipulate cellular and humoral transcriptional responses.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Blood-feeding arthropods rely on robust cellular and humoral immunity to control pathogen invasion and replication. Tick hemocytes produce factors that can facilitate or suppress microbial infection and pathogenesis. Despite the importance of hemocytes in regulating microbial infection, understanding of their basic biology and molecular mechanisms remains limited.

Methods

Here we combined histomorphology and functional analysis to identify five distinct phagocytic and non-phagocytic hemocyte populations circulating within the Gulf Coast tick Amblyomma maculatum.

Results and discussion

Depletion of phagocytic hemocytes using clodronate liposomes revealed their function in eliminating bacterial infection. We provide the first direct evidence that an

SUBMITTER: Adegoke A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9950277 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature