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Dissertation
INVESTIGATING THE ROLE OF A NOVEL TICK MIDGUT PROTEIN DURING BABESIA BOVIS INFECTION.
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
2025
Abstract
Bovine babesiosis, a tick-borne disease caused by the parasite Babesia bovis and transmitted by the Rhipicephalus microplus tick, is one of the most economically important veterinary diseases worldwide due to its immense impact on agricultural industries. There is no universal prevention strategy against this disease and current management strategies rely heavily on acaracide use and surveillance. However, an increase in acaracide resistant tick populations and the incidence of ticks in areas that are not endemic have pushed for novel prevention strategies focused on blocking transmission. One of the first interactions that R. microplus has with B. bovis occurs within the midgut, a vital organ that acts as the first obstacle for many pathogens to establish vector competence. Interactions between B. bovis and the tick midgut remain largely understudied. Herein, we show through proteomic analysis that a novel tick midgut protein, Rm24, is 2-fold upregulated within the midgut during B. bovis exposure. Abrogation of Rm24 in adult female R. microplus using RNA interference demonstrated that this protein is essential to B. bovis acquisition in the adult female and to the transovarial transmission of the parasite to the tick progeny. Moreover, we sought to characterize Rm24 and demonstrate that Rm24 is midgut specific R. microplus regardless of infection statue and that overtime, in infected ticks, Rm24 is constitutively expressed in the days post-engorgement, which is a stark contrast from the gradual increase of Rm24 abundance seen in uninfected ticks. Taken together, we have determined that Rm24 is a promising candidate for future transmission blocking therapies due to its midgut specificity, its disruption of parasite acquisition, and its reduction of transovarial transmission.
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Details
- Title
- INVESTIGATING THE ROLE OF A NOVEL TICK MIDGUT PROTEIN DURING BABESIA BOVIS INFECTION.
- Creators
- Sadie Izaguirre
- Contributors
- Massaro Ueti (Advisor)Kelly Brayton (Advisor)Dana Shaw (Committee Member)Karen Poh (Committee Member)Pia Olafson (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- College of Veterinary Medicine
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 84
- Identifiers
- 99901356784301842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation