Abstract
BackgroundThe argasid tick Ornithodoros erraticus is the vector of African swine fever virus and of several Borrelia species that cause human relapsing fever in the Iberian Peninsula. The tick midgut is part of the ectoparasite-host interface and expresses proteins that are vital for the survival of the tick. Midgut proteins are therefore potential targets for drug and/or vaccine design aimed at the development of new strategies for tick control. Thus, the aim of this work was the characterization of the proteome of the O. erraticus midgut before and after a blood meal trying to elucidate the induced changes upon blood feeding.MethodsMidgut tissues from unfed and engorged O. erraticus females were dissected and proteins were fractionated by centrifugation and SDS-PAGE, and the corresponding gel pieces analysed by LC–MS/MS. The identified proteins were classified according to their Protein Class and Molecular Function and the differences between fed and unfed specimens were analysed.ResultsOverall 555 tick proteins were identified: 414 in the midgut of the unfed specimens and 376 in the fed specimens, of which 235 were present in both groups. The proteins with catalytic, binding and structural functions were the most numerous and abundant, consistent with their role in the intracellular processing of the blood meal. The analysis of some groups of proteins putatively involved directly in blood meal digestion, including protein digestion (peptidase activity), iron metabolism, enzymes involved in oxidative stress and detoxification and membrane traffic and transport proteins, detected some differences between the fed and unfed ticksConclusionsThis work reports for the first time the collection and analysis of the midgut proteome of an argasid tick species and provides molecular information about the argasid machinery involved in blood digestion. This information represents a starting point for the identification and selection of new targets for the development of alternative control strategies.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13071-015-1148-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
The argasid tick Ornithodoros erraticus is the vector of African swine fever virus and of several Borrelia species that cause human relapsing fever in the Iberian Peninsula
Proteins involved in blood digestion and stress responses Once having the global analysis of proteomes, we considered of interest to make a more in-depth comparison of the four functional groups of proteins most likely involved in the process of blood digestion and in other processes related to blood feeding
After a more detailed analysis of certain groups of proteins identified in O. erraticus putatively involved directly in blood meal digestion -including protein digestion, iron metabolism, enzymes involved in oxidative stress and detoxification and membrane traffic and transport- we detected some differences between the fed and unfed ticks
Summary
The application of chemical acaricides for the control of O. erraticus has severe drawbacks (acaricide resistance and contamination of the environment and animal products) and has proved to be inefficient [6,7,8,9] These problems have stimulated the development of alternative methods for the control of this argasid tick, among which vaccines have emerged as the most promising, in particular those based on the concealed antigens of the tick midgut [1, 5]. The O. erraticus antigen responsible for the observed protection remains to be identified, but these findings indicate that the midgut of argasid ticks could be an important source of candidate antigens for vaccines, in agreement with what has been proposed for ixodids by other authors [9, 14]
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