Microbiome of long-term archived ixodid ticks

Ixodes persulcatus ticks are significant vectors of infectious diseases in Northern Asia. It is why, for decades, ticks and tick-borne pathogens had been the focus of scientific research in Mongolia, Russia and other countries. During this work, scientists had accumulated numerous archives of tick specimens collected in different years. Recent advances in molecular biology made it possible to research the genetic diversity of microorganisms even in severely degraded samples. This might allow tracing the tick-pathogen relationships and evolution over the long time to the past, especially in regards to the bacterial communities with stabile DNA genome. The goal of this studi is to test the feasibility and possible complications of microbiome reserach in the long-term archived ticks samples. We studied the diversity of bacterial communities in I. persulcatus that were archived at different conditions for 3 and 55 years.