Got Nature? Blog

Photo Credit: Andrew Nuss

An international team of scientists led by Purdue University has sequenced the genome of the tick that transmits Lyme disease, the most common vector-borne illness in North America.

The decade-long project, involving 93 authors from 46 institutions, decodes the biology of an arachnid with sophisticated spit, barbed mouthparts and millions of years of successful parasitism. The genome of Ixodes scapularis, known as the deer tick or blacklegged tick, also sheds light on how ticks acquire and transmit pathogens and offers tick-specific targets for control.

“The genome provides a foundation for a whole new era in tick research,” said Catherine Hill, lead author of the paper, Purdue professor of medical entomology and Showalter Faculty Scholar. “Now that we’ve cracked the tick’s code, we can begin to design strategies to control ticks, to understand how they transmit disease and to interfere with that process.”

The full article is available at Purdue Agriculture News.

Resources: 
Tick genome reveals inner workings of a versatile blood-guzzler – Purdue Agriculture News
Watch Out For Forest Hitchhikers – Ticks! – Got Nature?
Lyme Disease – The Education Store, Purdue Extension Resource Center
The Biology and Medical Importance of Ticks in Indiana – The Education Store
Ticks – Biology and Their Control – The Education Store
Ticks – Purdue Medical Entomology

Purdue Agriculture News