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ViewAttendees 8

Organized Meeting

Multistate Research Project NE1943: Biology, Ecology, and Management of Emerging Disease Vectors

7: Epigenetic Drivers in the Transmission of Tick-borne Diseases in the US

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Tick-borne diseases have been increasing in the US. According to the CDC, tick-related illnesses rose from 48,610 in 2016 to 59,349 cases in 2017. The increase in tick-borne disease cases, along with the discovery of new tick-borne pathogens, has generated public concern. Curiously, most tick-borne disease cases associated with Ixodes scapularis occur in the Northeastern and Upper-Midwest. These high transmission areas correlate with questing, host-preference, feeding, and other behavioral differences between the tick populations.
Interestingly, several of these behavioral differences appear to be inherited from the mother. Although genetic studies have divided the I. scapularis populations into two different clades, the molecular basis for these variations has not been elucidated. The recent discovery that Ixodes ricinus genome, Lyme disease vector in Europe, is methylated has sparked an interest in the role of epigenetics in vector capacity. To determine the role of epigenetics in the vectorial capacity of different tick populations, we investigated the variation in methylation of I. scapularis collected in Minnesota (high-Lyme disease area) and Texas (low-Lyme disease area). Global methylation was assessed by ELISA and bisulfite genome sequencing. The expression of DNA methyltransferases was evaluated by Reverse-Transcriptase (RT)-PCR. Our preliminary results indicate that the genomes of ticks collected from MN and TX are differentially methylated. Further, bisulfite methylation analysis of TX ticks has identified differential methylation between sexes. These results suggest that similar to bees, DNA methylation plays a role in the life cycle of Ixodes scapularis, one that may influence Lyme disease transmission.