Dataset Information

Midgut proteome of an argasid tick, Ornithodoros erraticus: a comparison between unfed and engorged females.

ABSTRACT: 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. 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.Midgut 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.Overall 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 ticksThis 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.

SUBMITTER: Oleaga A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4603979 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Midgut proteome of an argasid tick, Ornithodoros erraticus: a comparison between unfed and engorged females.

Oleaga Ana A Obolo-Mvoulouga Prosper P Manzano-Román Raúl R Pérez-Sánchez Ricardo R

Parasites & vectors 20151012

<h4>Background</h4>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. 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 chara ...[more]

PMID: 26459090

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Project description:The argasid tick Ornithodoros moubata is the main African vector of the human relapsing fever agent Borrelia duttoni and the African swine fever virus. Together with saliva, the tick midgut forms part of the host-tick-pathogen interface, and numerous midgut proteins play key functions in the blood digestion-related process and the infection and transmission of pathogens. This work explores the composition of the midgut proteome of unfed and fed O. moubata females with the aim to complete the biological information already obtained from the midgut transcriptome and provide a more robust and comprehensive perspective of this biological system.Midgut tissues taken from females before feeding and 48 h after feeding were subjected to LC/MS-MS analysis. After functional characterization and classification of the proteins identified, the differences in the proteome between unfed and fed females were analysed and discussed. Additionally, a detailed analysis of particular groups of proteins that are involved in the processes of nutrient digestion and responses to the oxidative stress was carried out.1491 non-redundant tick proteins were identified: 1132 of them in the midgut of unfed ticks, 1138 in the midgut of fed ticks, and up to 779 shared by both physiological conditions. Overall, the comparative analysis of the midgut proteomes of O. moubata females before and after feeding did not reveal great differences in the number or class of proteins expressed, enzymatic composition or functional classification.The hemoglobinolytic system in ixodids and argasids is very similar in spite of the fact that they display very different feeding and reproductive strategies. Although the main source of nutrients in ticks are proteins, lipids and carbohydrates also constitute significant nutritional sources and play an important part in the process of blood digestion. The genes and proteins involved in intracellular transport mechanisms, defensive responses, detoxifying responses and stress responses seem to be closely regulated, highlighting the complexity and importance of these processes in tick biology, which in turn assigns them a great interest as targets for therapeutic and immunological interventions.

Project description:BackgroundThe argasid tick Ornithodoros erraticus is the main vector of tick-borne human relapsing fever (TBRF) and African swine fever (ASF) in the Mediterranean Basin. The prevention and control of these diseases would greatly benefit from the elimination of O. erraticus populations, and anti-tick vaccines are envisaged as an effective and sustainable alternative to chemical acaricide usage for tick control. Ornithodoros erraticus saliva contains bioactive proteins that play essential functions in tick feeding and host defence modulation, which may contribute to host infection by tick-borne pathogens. Hence, these proteins could be candidate antigen targets for the development of vaccines aimed at the control and prevention of O. erraticus infestations and the diseases this tick transmits. The objective of the present work was to obtain and characterise the proteome of the saliva of O. erraticus adult ticks as a means to identify and select novel salivary antigen targets.MethodsA proteomics informed by transcriptomics (PIT) approach was applied to analyse samples of female and male saliva separately using the previously obtained O. erraticus sialotranscriptome as a reference database and two different mass spectrometry techniques, namely liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) in data-dependent acquisition mode and sequential window acquisition of all theoretical fragment ion spectra MS (SWATH-MS).ResultsUp to 264 and 263 proteins were identified by LC-MS/MS in the saliva of O. erraticus female and male ticks, respectively, totalling 387 non-redundant proteins. Of these, 224 were further quantified by SWATH-MS in the saliva of both male and female ticks. Quantified proteins were classified into 23 functional categories and their abundance compared between sexes. Heme/iron-binding proteins, protease inhibitors, proteases, lipocalins and immune-related proteins were the categories most abundantly expressed in females, while glycolytic enzymes, protease inhibitors and lipocalins were the most abundantly expressed in males. Ninety-seven proteins were differentially expressed between the sexes, of which 37 and 60 were overexpressed in females and males, respectively.ConclusionsThe PIT approach demonstrated its usefulness for proteomics studies of O. erraticus, a non-model organism without genomic sequences available, allowing the publication of the first comprehensive proteome of the saliva of O. erraticus reported to date. These findings confirm important quantitative differences between sexes in the O. erraticus saliva proteome, unveil novel salivary proteins and functions at the tick-host feeding interface and improve our understanding of the physiology of feeding in O. erraticus ticks. The integration of O. erraticus sialoproteomic and sialotranscriptomic data will drive a more rational selection of salivary candidates as antigen targets for the development of vaccines aimed at the control of O. erraticus infestations and the diseases it transmits.

Project description:Anti-tick vaccines have proved to be an effective and sustainable method for the control of tick infestations and tick-borne diseases with clear advantages over the application of chemical acaricides (Šmit and Postma, 2016; de la Fuente, 2018; Ndawula and Tabor, 2020). Moreover, the efficacy of acaricide application against Ornithodoros ticks is seriously limited owing to their endophilic/nidicolous life style, which make these ticks less accessible to the chemical acaricides (Astigaraga et al., 1995). Success in tick vaccine development is largely dependent on identification of new and highly protective tick antigens. Searching of new candidate protective antigens is currently being approached among tick molecules that play important biological functions at the tick-host interface, and more precisely among the salivary and intestinal proteins involved in biological processes specifically evolved by ticks to adapt to haematophagy (de la Fuente et al., 2016; Oleaga et al., 2021; Pérez-Sánchez et al., 2021). Accordingly, next-generation sequencing (NGS) and high-throughput proteomics technologies are been used to explore the transcriptome and proteome of the salivary glands/saliva and midguts of an increasing number of tick species and obtain the corresponding sialomes and mialomes (Chmelař et al., 2016; Almeida-Martins et al., 2020; Mans et al., 2020; Oleaga et al., 2021). These studies have identified a wealth of tick molecules related to tick haematophagy, tick-host interplay and pathogen transmission, which can then be scrutinized and filtered in vaccinomics pipelines for selecting candidate protective antigens (Chmelař et al., 2016; Maruyama et al., 2017; Antunes et al., 2018; de la Fuente et al., 2018; Ren et al., 2019; Couto et al., 2021). Similarly, we were also interested in characterizing the O. erraticus sialome. As far as O. erraticus saliva must contain all the bioactive molecules that the tick need to successfully feed, decoding its composition will lead to the discovery of new antigen targets for developing vaccines for the control and prevention of O. erraticus infestations and the diseases it transmits. Accordingly, the objective of the present work was to obtain the proteome of the saliva of O. erraticus adult ticks. For this, we have used a proteomics informed by transcriptomics approach to analyse female and male saliva separately using two different mass spectrometry approaches: liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) in data-dependent acquisition (DDA) mode, and Sequential Window Acquisition of all Theoretical fragment ion spectra Mass Spectrometry (SWATH MS). SWATH MS is a specific variant of data-independent acquisition (DIA) methods that combines deep proteome coverage capabilities with quantitative consistency and accuracy (Ludwig et al., 2018). Here we reported the identification of 387 non-redundant proteins in the saliva of O. erraticus adult ticks as well as a qualitative and quantitative comparison of the saliva protein composition between both sexes. The integration of O. erraticus sialoproteomic and sialotranscriptomic datasets facilitate a better understanding of the physiology of feeding in O. erraticus and will drive the discovery of new and more effective antigen targets for development of anti-tick vaccines.

Project description:African swine fever (ASF) is a lethal hemorrhagic disease in domestic pigs and wild suids caused by African swine fever virus (ASFV), which threatens the swine industry globally. In its native African enzootic foci, ASFV is naturally circulating between soft ticks of the genus Ornithodoros, especially in the O. moubata group, and wild reservoir suids, such as warthogs (Phacochoerus spp.) that are bitten by infected soft ticks inhabiting their burrows. While the ability of some Afrotropical soft ticks to transmit and maintain ASFV is well established, the vector status of Palearctic soft tick species for ASFV strains currently circulating in Eurasia remains largely unknown. For example, the Iberian soft tick O. erraticus is a known vector and reservoir of ASFV, but its ability to transmit different ASFV strains has not been assessed since ASF re-emerged in Europe in 2007. Little is known about vector competence for ASFV in other species, such as O. verrucosus, which occurs in southern parts of Eastern Europe, including Ukraine and parts of Russia, and in the Caucasus. Therefore, we conducted transmission trials with two Palearctic soft tick species, O. erraticus and O. verrucosus, and the Afrotropical species O. moubata. We tested the ability of ticks to transmit virulent ASFV strains, including one of direct African origin (Liv13/33), and three from Eurasia that had been involved in previous (OurT88/1), and the current epizooties (Georgia2007/1 and Ukr12/Zapo). Our experimental results showed that O. moubata was able to transmit the African and Eurasian ASFV strains, whereas O. erraticus and O. verrucosus failed to transmit the Eurasian ASFV strains. However, naïve pigs showed clinical signs of ASF when inoculated with homogenates of crushed O. erraticus and O. verrucosus ticks that fed on viraemic pigs, which proved the infectiousness of ASFV contained in the ticks. These results documented that O. erraticus and O. verrucosus are unlikely to be capable vectors of ASFV strains currently circulating in Eurasia. Additionally, the persistence of infection in soft ticks for several months reaffirms that the infectious status of a given tick species is only part of the data required to assess its vector competence for ASFV.

Dataset Information

Midgut proteome of an argasid tick, Ornithodoros erraticus: a comparison between unfed and engorged females.

Publications

Midgut proteome of an argasid tick, Ornithodoros erraticus: a comparison between unfed and engorged females.

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