Do the level of energy reserves, hydration status and<i>Borrelia</i>infection influence walking by<i>Ixodes ricinus</i>(Acari: Ixodidae) ticks?

Herrmann, Coralie; Gern, Lise

doi:10.1017/s0031182011002095

Cited by 59 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(96 reference statements)

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“…I. ricinus nymphal ticks were sampled from the Bois de l'Hôpital site in a deciduous forest near Neuchâtel (47°00=55.6ЉN, 6°94=16.7ЉE; surface area of 1 ha) over a period of 3 years (2009 to 2011). These ticks were sampled as part of the PhD thesis of Coralie Herrmann, and details of the field sampling and subsequent molecular methods have been described previously (27,(78)(79)(80)(81).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multistrain Infections with Lyme Borreliosis Pathogens in the Tick Vector

Durand

Herrmann

Genné

et al. 2017

Appl Environ Microbiol

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Mixed or multiple-strain infections are common in vector-borne diseases and have important implications for the epidemiology of these pathogens. Previous studies have mainly focused on interactions between pathogen strains in the vertebrate host, but little is known about what happens in the arthropod vector. Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii are two species of spirochete bacteria that cause Lyme borreliosis in Europe and that share a tick vector, Ixodes ricinus. Each of these two tick-borne pathogens consists of multiple strains that are often differentiated using the highly polymorphic ospC gene. For each Borrelia species, we studied the frequencies and abundances of the ospC strains in a wild population of I. ricinus ticks that had been sampled from the same field site over a period of 3 years. We used quantitative PCR (qPCR) and 454 sequencing to estimate the spirochete load and the strain diversity within each tick. For B. afzelii, there was a negative relationship between the two most common ospC strains, suggesting the presence of competitive interactions in the vertebrate host and possibly the tick vector. The flat relationship between total spirochete abundance and strain richness in the nymphal tick indicates that the mean abundance per strain decreases as the number of strains in the tick increases. Strains with the highest spirochete load in the nymphal tick were the most common strains in the tick population. The spirochete abundance in the nymphal tick appears to be an important life history trait that explains why some strains are more common than others in nature.IMPORTANCE Lyme borreliosis is the most common vector-borne disease in the Northern Hemisphere and is caused by spirochete bacteria that belong to the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato species complex. These tick-borne pathogens are transmitted among vertebrate hosts by hard ticks of the genus Ixodes. Each Borrelia species can be further subdivided into genetically distinct strains. Multiple-strain infections are common in both the vertebrate host and the tick vector and can result in competitive interactions. To date, few studies on multiple-strain vector-borne pathogens have investigated patterns of cooccurrence and abundance in the arthropod vector. We demonstrate that the abundance of a given strain in the tick vector is negatively affected by the presence of coinfecting strains. In addition, our study suggests that the spirochete abundance in the tick is an important life history trait that can explain why some strains are more common in nature than others.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multistrain Infections with Lyme Borreliosis Pathogens in the Tick Vector

Durand

Herrmann

Genné

et al. 2017

Appl Environ Microbiol

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“…The present study is a meta-analysis of seven independent sampling occasions that were conducted by Coralie Herrmann over the course of her Ph.D. thesis (35)(36)(37)(38). The ticks collected on these sampling occasions were used in studies to quantify fat content in ticks and to test how temperature, humidity, and Borrelia infection influenced the physiology, behavior, and survival of I. ricinus nymphs (Table 1).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The sampling site was a mixed forest situated 600 m above sea level on the south-facing slope of Chaumont Mountain, Neuchâtel, Switzerland (47°00= N, 6°57= E). Field sampling of questing ticks and subsequent molecular methods have been described in detail elsewhere (35,(36)(37)(38). Briefly, our molecular protocol consisted of two successive steps: (i) quantitative PCR (qPCR) to identify Borrelia-infected nymphs and to estimate the spirochete load, and (ii) reverse line blot (RLB) of the Borrelia-infected nymphs to identify the Borrelia genospecies.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Species Co-Occurrence Patterns among Lyme Borreliosis Pathogens in the Tick Vector Ixodes ricinus

Herrmann

Gern

Voordouw

2013

Appl Environ Microbiol

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bMixed infections have important consequences for the ecology and evolution of host-parasite interactions. In vector-borne diseases, interactions between pathogens occur in both the vertebrate host and the arthropod vector. Spirochete bacteria belonging to the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato genospecies complex are transmitted by Ixodes ticks and cause Lyme borreliosis in humans. In Europe, there is a high diversity of Borrelia pathogens, and the main tick vector, Ixodes ricinus, is often infected with multiple Borrelia genospecies. In the present study, we characterized the pairwise interactions between five B. burgdorferi sensu lato genospecies in a large data set of I. ricinus ticks collected from the same field site in Switzerland. We measured two types of pairwise interactions: (i) co-occurrence, whether double infections occurred more or less often than expected, and (ii) spirochete load additivity, whether the total spirochete load in double infections was greater or less than the sum of the single infections. Mixed infections of Borrelia genospecies specialized on different vertebrate reservoir hosts occurred less frequently than expected (negative co-occurrence) and had joint spirochete loads that were lower than the additive expectation (inhibition). In contrast, mixed infections of genospecies that share the same reservoir hosts were more common than expected (positive cooccurrence) and had joint spirochete loads that were similar to or greater than the additive expectation (facilitation). Our study suggests that the vertebrate host plays an important role in structuring the community of B. burgdorferi sensu lato genospecies inside the tick vector.

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“…While the differences among species and with surface incline were not unexpected, the signiÞcant differences in tick motility among endosymbiont infection classes represents a novel result. A few previous studies examined the effect of B. burgdorferi infection on motility of Ixodes ticks (Lefcort and Durden 1996, Herrmann and Gern 2012. Here, the microbes are vertically-transmitted (transovarial) symbionts and we found that infection both increased (Rickettsia) and decreased (Arsenophonus) motility relative to uninfected ticks depending on tick species and incline.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

“…For example, Lefcort and Durden (1996) found that B. burgdorferi infection signiÞcantly decreased activity of adult I. scapularis Say relative to uninfected ticks, but infected nymphs exhibited an opposite trend. Likewise, Herrmann and Gern (2012) found that Borrelia infection reduced walking activity of infected, high-fat I. ricinus L. nymphs but there was no difference in low-fat nymphs. also reported that B. burgdorferi infection decreased locomotive activity of both adult and immature I. ricinus ticks.…”

mentioning

confidence: 92%

Effects of Infection byArsenophonusandRickettsiaBacteria on the Locomotive Ability of the TicksAmblyomma americanum,Dermacentor variabilis, andIxodes scapularis

Kagemann

Clay

2013

J Med Entomol

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The goal of this study was to determine the effect of vertically transmitted Arsenophonus and Rickettsia bacteria on locomotive ability of larvae of three eastern North American tick species: Amblyomma americanum, Dermacentor variabilis, and Ixodes scapularis. We conducted two different experiments on flat or inclined surfaces to measure tick motility. In each experiment, a moderately heated surface was used and placed at a selected incline. The individual's path across the surface was traced for a period of 2 min, or until the larval tick had moved off the surface. Following the microbial identification of Arsenophonus and Rickettsia, a mixed model analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that clutch microbial infection status had a significant effect on tick motility with Rickettsia increasing and Arsenophonus decreasing motility averaged over tick species and inclines. There was also a significant difference in motility among tick species and a highly significant effect of the Species*Incline interaction where Dermacentor had higher motility than Ixodes on the flat surface.

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Do the level of energy reserves, hydration status andBorreliainfection influence walking byIxodes ricinus(Acari: Ixodidae) ticks?

Cited by 59 publications

References 43 publications

Multistrain Infections with Lyme Borreliosis Pathogens in the Tick Vector

Multistrain Infections with Lyme Borreliosis Pathogens in the Tick Vector

Species Co-Occurrence Patterns among Lyme Borreliosis Pathogens in the Tick Vector Ixodes ricinus

Effects of Infection byArsenophonusandRickettsiaBacteria on the Locomotive Ability of the TicksAmblyomma americanum,Dermacentor variabilis, andIxodes scapularis

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