摘要
A systems biology approach was employed to gain insight into tick biology and interactions between vectors and pathogens.Haemaphysalis longicornis serves as one of the primary vectors of Babesia microti,significantly impacting human and animal health.Obtaining more information about their relationship is crucial for a comprehensive un-derstanding of tick and pathogen biology,pathogen transmission dynamics,and potential control strategies.RNA sequencing of uninfected and B.microti-infected ticks resulted in the identification of 15056 unigenes.Among these,1051 were found to be differentially expressed,with 796 being upregulated and 255 downregulated(P<0.05).Integrated tran-scriptomics datasets revealed the pivotal role of immune-related pathways,including the Toll,Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription(JAK-STAT),immunod-eficiency,and RNA interference(RNAi)pathways,in response to infection.Consequently,3 genes encoding critical transcriptional factor Dorsal,Relish,and STAT were selected for RNAi experiments.The knockdown of Dorsal,Relish,and STAT resulted in a substantial increase in Babesia infection levels compared to the respective controls.These findings significantly advanced our understanding of tick–Babesia molecular interactions and pro-posed novel tick antigens as potential vaccine targets against tick infestations and pathogen transmission.
基金
supported by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions,National Natural Science Foundation of China(32170142,81971917,81271792,81471571)
Jiangsu Natural Science Foundation(BK20211310),and funding from Suzhou International Joint Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Brain Diseases.
