Tick-borne spotted fever group (SFG) Rickettsia species are obligate intracellular bacteria capable of infecting both vertebrate and invertebrate host cells, an essential process for subsequent bacterial survival in distinct hosts. The host cell signaling molecules involved in the uptake of Rickettsia into mammalian and Drosophila cells have been identified; however, invasion into tick cells is understudied. Considering the movement of SFG Rickettsia between vertebrate and invertebrate hosts, the hypothesis is that conserved mechanisms are utilized for host cell invasion. The current study employed biochemical inhibition assays to determine the tick proteins involved in Rickettsia montanensis infection of tick-derived cells from a natural host, Dermacentor variabilis. The results revealed several tick proteins important for rickettsial invasion, including actin filaments, actin-related protein 2/3 complex, phosphatidylinositol-3=-kinase, protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs), Src family PTK, focal adhesion kinase, Rho GTPase Rac1, and neural Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein. Delineating the molecular mechanisms of rickettsial infection is critical to a thorough understanding of rickettsial transmission in tick populations and the ecology of tick-borne rickettsial diseases.T ick-borne rickettsial diseases caused by pathogenic bacteria belonging to the genera Rickettsia, Anaplasma, and Ehrlichia are steadily increasing in the United States (1). Infection associated with these obligate intracellular bacteria ranges from mild, self-limiting to severe, including death (2). In the typical transmission cycle, spotted fever group (SFG) rickettsiae transmit vertically during the tick life cycle stages and between vectors and vertebrate hosts during tick acquisition of a blood meal. In vertebrate hosts, mechanisms of SFG Rickettsia infection, including invasion, escape from the phagosome, intracellular growth, intracellular movement, and cell-to-cell spread, have been studied (3). Tick acquisition of SFG Rickettsia from rickettsemic hosts is poorly described, and despite the essential role for tick hosts in maintenance and transmission of SFG Rickettsia to vertebrate hosts, the biology of the tick cell-SFG Rickettsia interaction is understudied.The obligate intracellular nature of Rickettsia requires bacteria to invade both vertebrate and invertebrate host cells, and this process, host cell invasion by SFG Rickettsia, has been studied in mammalian and Drosophila cell lines. Mammalian ligands Ku70 and ␣ 2  1 integrin interact with rickettsial outer membrane proteins B and A (OmpB and OmpA), respectively, and are involved in Rickettsia conorii invasion of mammalian host cells (4, 5). After binding to rickettsial OmpB, R. conorii induces signaling cascades in which Ku70 is initially ubiquitinated by c-Cbl ubiquitin ligase. Subsequently, signaling molecules, including Cdc42, protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs), phosphatidylinositol-3=-kinase (PI3-kinase), Src family tyrosine kinases (Src), focal adhesion kinase (FAK), and cortactin, c...