The bacterial microbiome of Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) annulatus ticks (Acari: Ixodidae)

Aiswarya, Manathottathil; Poornima, Pookadavath; Sheik Mohammed Shamsudeen, Razool; Meethal Sheeja, Ullatil; Koyyan, Prakasan

doi:10.22073/pja.v14i3.86579

The bacterial microbiome of Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) annulatus ticks (Acari: Ixodidae)

Authors

Manathottathil Aiswarya ¹

Pookadavath Poornima ²

Razool Sheik Mohammed Shamsudeen ³

Ullatil Meethal Sheeja ³

Prakasan Koyyan ⁴

¹ Postgraduate & Research Department of Zoology, Maharaja’s College (Affiliated to Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala), Ernakulam, 682011, Kerala, India

² Department of Zoology, Kannur University, Wayanad, 670645, Kerala, India

³ Department of Zoology, Kannur University, Wayanad, 670645, Kerala

⁴ PG & Research Department of Zoology, Maharaja’s College, Cochin, Ernakulam, 682011, Kerala, India

10.22073/pja.v14i3.86579

Abstract

Despite the role of ticks in many infectious diseases, studies on the diversity of bacteria in tick species are limited. There have not been any scientific articles available that explore the bacterial microbiota associated with Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) annulatus (Say) ticks in India. In this study, we attempted to gather elaborate data on the bacterial fauna associated with R. annulatus through conventional culturable and culture-independent (Next Generation Sequencing —NGS) methods. Two locations of zoonotic significance within the Western Ghats region were selected. Tick samples were obtained from grazing cows (Bos indicus) from June 2023 to September 2023. The conventional culturable method revealed three phyla and the NGS exposed 19 phyla. The culturable method reported Actinobacteria as the abundant phyla (57.14%), followed by Proteobacteria (28.57%) and Firmicutes (14.28%). According to the NGS data, phylum Firmicutes (35.81%) was the most abundant phylum with differences at 95% confidence intervals. The study obtained a total of eight bacterial genera of pathogenic potential. Given the medical importance of the identified bacterial strains in Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI), this study highlights the need for further research on tick-associated microbiomes.

Keywords

Culturable bacteria

Kerala

India

Next Generation sequencing

tick