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Title: Analysis of Babesia bovis-induced gene expression changes in the cattle tick, Rhipcephalus (Boophilus) microplus.

Author
item Heekin, Andrew
item Guerrero, Felicito
item Bendele, Kylie
item SALDIVAR, L - University Of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
item Scoles, Glen
item GONDRO, C - University Of New England
item NENE, V - International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) - Kenya
item DJIKENG, A - International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) - Kenya
item BRAYTON, K - Washington State University

Submitted to: National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/30/2012
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Rhipcephalus (Boophilus) microplus ticks are vectors of Babesia bovis, the protozoan causative agent of cattle fever, a disease which is responsible for significant production losses to cattle producers in much of Africa, Central and South America and Australia. We initiated a study of differential gene expression in larvae of Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus following infection by Babesia bovis in an attempt to identify tick genes which might be critical to successful pathogen infection and maintenance of infection in cattle tick larvae. These critical genes might be candidates for development of anti-Babesia control technologies. We utilized a technique called subtractive cDNA library synthesis which allowed the isolation of genes preferentially activated following the adult tick's infection with Babesia bovis. We allowed the tick's lifecycle to progress to the larval stage and isolated RNA from Babesia-infected larvae and uninfected larvae. These RNAs were utilized to produce subtracted cDNA libraries from which 469 expressed gene sequences were obtained. Thus, we have produced DNA sequence databases consisting of genes which are over-expressed in Babesia bovis-infected larvae compared to uninfected controls. The sets of sequences have been submitted and published under GenBank Accession Numbers JT844344-JT844812.

Technical Abstract: Boophilus ticks are vectors of Babesia bovis, the protozoan causative agent of cattle fever, a disease which is responsible for significant production losses to cattle producers in much of Africa, Central and South America and Australia. We utilized subtractive cDNA library synthesis techniques to obtain 306 DNA sequences from genes over-expressed in Babesis bovis-infected B. microplus larvae compared to uninfected control larvae. The sets of sequences have been submitted and published under GenBank Accession Numbers JT844344-JT844812.