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Abstract
The paired salivary glands of female ixodid ticks are essential organs of osmoregulation. As the female feeds, the rate of salivary fluid secretion increases greatly enabling the tick to concentrate its bloodmeal by returning excess water and ions to the host via the salivary ducts. The glands are controlled by nerves and the neurotransmitter at the neuroeffector junction is dopamine. Cyclic AMP is a “second messenger” of the fluid secretory process. Specific endogenous salivary gland proteins are phosphorylated by cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinases which facilitate in some way the fluid secretory process. Fluid secretory capability and dopamine sensitive adenylate cyclase activity in glands of feeding females are dependent on weight of the feeding tick from which they are obtained. Conversely, cyclic AMP-dependent phosphodiesterase is inversely related to the magnitude of fluid secretory capability of the glands. Deletion of calcium or addition of verapamil to the bathing medium during experiments with isolated glands inhibits dopamine-stimulated fluid secretion. The precise role(s) of calcium in secretion is(are) unknown but it may help regulate cyclic AMP by regulating activator and inhibitor proteins of cyclic AMP phosphodiesterase. The inhibitor modulators are at much higher concentrations in salivary glands of ticks in the rapid phase of feeding.
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