The Midgut Bacterial Flora of Laboratory-Reared Hard Ticks, Haemaphysalis longicornis, Hyalomma asiaticum, and Rhipicephalus haemaphysaloides

摘要

Ixodid ticks play an important role in the transmission of a variety of zoonoses of viral, bacterial and protozoan origin, and they also harbor a wealth of microorganisms. To gain more detailed insights into the potential interactions between bacterial lfora and tick-borne pathogens, we investigated the midgut bacterial lfora of laboratory-reared Haemaphysalis longicornis, Hyalomma asiaticum and Rhipicephalus haemaphysaloides. Based on morphological, biochemical, and 16S rDNA sequencing results, we identiifed 15 species belonging to 12 genera in the midgut of the three ticks. The bacterial communities were similar to those found in other studies of hematophagous arthropods. Kocuria sp. was the most frequently isolated species and its 16S rDNA gene sequence was very similar to Kocuria koreensis P31T. To our knowledge, this is the ifrst report of the bacterial lfora of tick midguts and the results show that there were many different bacterial species in each tick species. Among the most common genera, there may have been a novel species in the genus Kocuria. The results might be the ifrst step for looking for different aspects of the pathogen and tick interaction.