Spit-acular Entry: Borrelia Gets Help from a Tick Salivary Protein to Move from the Mammalian Host to the Arthropod Vector

Abstract

In vector-host-pathogen interactions, vector saliva plays a key role in the successful acquisition of blood and in facilitating the establishment of pathogens in mammalian hosts. In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Narasimhan et al. describe how a tick salivary antioxidant neutralizes reactive oxygen species at the tick-host interface and facilitates the tick vector's acquisition of Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria from an infected mammalian host.