Discovery and Surveillance of Tick-Borne Pathogens

Abstract

Within the past 30 yr molecular assays have largely supplanted classical methods for detection of tick-borne agents. Enhancements provided by molecular assays, including speed, throughput, sensitivity, and specificity, have resulted in a rapid increase in the number of newly characterized tick-borne agents. The use of unbiased high throughput sequencing has enabled the prompt identification of new pathogens and the examination of tick microbiomes. These efforts have led to the identification of hundreds of new tick-borne agents in the last decade alone. However, little is currently known about the majority of these agents beyond their phylogenetic classification. Our article outlines the primary methods involved in tick-borne agent discovery and the current status of our understanding of tick-borne agent diversity.

Bacteria related to tick-borne pathogen assemblages in Ornithodoros cf. hasei (Acari: Argasidae) and blood of the wild mammal hosts in the Orinoquia region, Colombia

“…(Estrada-Peña et al 2013 ; Tijsse-Klasen et al 2014 ; Cabezas-Cruz et al 2018 ). Targeted microbiome analysis enables the detection and identification of bacteria assemblages by metagenomic profiling (Cabezas-Cruz et al 2018 ; Greay et al 2018 ; Thoendel 2020 ) and has allowed for increased detection of new microorganism species, strains, and genetic variation within ticks (Tokarz and Lipkin 2021 ). The list of potential tick-borne pathogens is growing (Shapiro et al 2010 ; Subramanian et al 2012 ; Wu-Chuang et al 2021 ) and microbiome studies are beginning to take on a critical role in the functional investigation of microbial communities; this is largely due to the understanding of vector-borne diseases in relation to their pathogenicity, ecology, reproduction, potential hosts, and the implication in human and animal public health (Vilcins et al 2009 ; Rynkiewicz et al 2015 ; Bonnet et al 2017 ).…”

Highly adaptive Phenuiviridae with biomedical importance in multiple fields

“…Genomes of coguviruses are bipartite, except for Grapevine coguvirus whose genome is tripartite (Table 1). Laulavirus , first identified in 2017 in the USA, 65 currently covers three plant viruses Grapevine laulavirus 2 , Grapevine laulavirus 3 , and Grapevine laulavirus 4 , and a tick virus, Laurel Lake laulavirus 66 . Laurel Lake laulavirus did not encode the proteins of Gn and Gc but encoded a movement protein.…”

Unconventional Approaches to Direct Detection of Borreliosis and Other Tick Borne Illnesses: A Path Forward

“…Unbiased high throughput molecular methods hold the promise to identify pathogens in the face of strain and antigenic variability. Next generation sequencing has been proposed for vector characterization and surveillance studies and has led to new pathogen identification and tick microbiome characterization [ 18 ]. The use of next generation sequencing as diagnostic method for pediatric Lyme patients is under clinical evaluation ( ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03505879 ).…”