Ultrastructural Study of Muscles Fibers in Tick Hyalomma (Hyalomma) anatolicum anatolicum (Ixodoidea: Ixodidae)

Abstract

In the present study, ticks were obtained from a colony maintained at 28 degrees C and 75% relative humidity in at the Department of Biology, University College Umm Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia and the Transmission Electron Microscope technique (TEM) was used to describes the ultrastructure and description of muscle of the of ixodid tick Hyalomma (Hyalomma) anatolicum anatolicum. The results showed that muscles of the unfed ticks Hyalomma (Hyalomma) anatolicum anatolicum in longitudinal sections are spindle-shaped to cylindrical muscle fibers. In the unfed nymph Hyalomma (Hyalomma) anatolicum anatolicum skeletal and visceral muscles are distinguished according to structure, function and position. These muscles include the capitulum, dorsoventral and leg oblique muscles. All muscle fibers are ensheathed (covered by sheath) in a sarcolemma. Their muscle fibers have striated pattern of successive sarcomeres whose thick myosin filaments are surrounded by orbitals of up to 12 thin actin filaments. The cytoplasm of the epidermal cell appears largely devoted with complicated microtubules present in parallel with long axis of adjacent muscle fibers. The cell membrane invaginates into tubular system extending deeply into the sarcoplasm and closely associated to cisternae of sarcoplasmic reticulum. The tubular system and sarcoplasmic reticulum forming two-membered (dyads) are considered to be the main route of calcium ions whose movement are synchronized with the motor impulse to control muscles contraction. In the sarcoplasm two types of muscle fibers are recognized according to thickness and density and mitochondrial size, distribution and population. Both skeletal and visceral muscles are invaginated by tracheoles and innervated by nerve axons containing synaptic vesicles. The actin and myosin filaments are slightly interrupted and the tubular system sarcoplasmic reticulum is well demonstrated.