Tick innate immune responses to hematophagy and Ehrlichia infection at single-cell resolution.
| Autor: | Adegoke A; School of Biological, Environmental, and Earth Sciences, The University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS, United States., Ribeiro JMC; Vector Biology Section, Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD, United States., Smith RC; Department of Plant Pathology, Entomology, and Microbiology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States., Karim S; School of Biological, Environmental, and Earth Sciences, The University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS, United States. |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Zdroj: | Frontiers in immunology [Front Immunol] 2024 Jan 11; Vol. 14, pp. 1305976. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jan 11 (Print Publication: 2023). |
| DOI: | 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1305976 |
| Abstrakt: | Introduction: Ticks rely on robust cellular and humoral responses to control microbial infection. However, several aspects of the tick's innate immune system remain uncharacterized, most notably that of the immune cells (called hemocytes), which are known to play a significant role in cellular and humoral responses. Despite the importance of hemocytes in regulating microbial infection, our understanding of their basic biology and molecular mechanisms remains limited. Therefore, we believe that a more detailed understanding of the role of hemocytes in the interactions between ticks and tick-borne microbes is crucial to illuminating their function in vector competence and to help identify novel targets for developing new strategies to block tick-borne pathogen transmission. Methods: This study examined hemocytes from the lone star tick ( Amblyomma americanum ) at the transcriptomic level using the 10X genomics single-cell RNA sequencing platform to analyze hemocyte populations from unfed, partially blood-fed, and Ehrlichia chaffeensis -infected ticks. The functional role of differentially expressed hemocyte markers in hemocyte proliferation and Ehrlichia dissemination was determined using an RNA interference approach. Results and Discussion: Our data exhibit the identification of fourteen distinct hemocyte populations. Our results uncover seven distinct lineages present in uninfected and Ehrlichia -infected hemocyte clusters. The functional characterization of hemocytin , cystatin , fibronectin , and lipocalin demonstrate their role in hemocyte population changes, proliferation, and Ehrlichia dissemination. Conclusion: Our results uncover the tick immune responses to Ehrlichia infection and hematophagy at a single-cell resolution. This work opens a new field of tick innate immunobiology to understand the role of hemocytes, particularly in response to prolonged blood-feeding (hematophagy), and tick-microbial interactions. Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision. (Copyright © 2024 Adegoke, Ribeiro, Smith and Karim.) |
| Databáze: | MEDLINE |
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