RNA-seq of blood samples from bovines immunized with a multicomponent recombinant vaccine against cattle tick.

Tick infestations by Rhipicephalus microplus, the cattle tick, cause enormous losses to health and animal production. Ticks induce immune response in their hosts; therefore their immunobiological control is feasible. The available anti-tick vaccines display variable efficacy and short-lived, encouraging the search for new protective antigens. The identification of important genes in tick parasitism may indicate protective antigens useful to compose an anti-tick vaccine. We have developed and tested so far four recombinant salivary antigens as a multicomponent anti-tick vaccine in tick-susceptible bovines (Holstein breed). The challenge with R. microplus larvae displayed that tick infestation in vaccinated bovines was significantly reduced. In order to elucidate the molecular mechanisms trigged after immunisation and during infestation, RNA-seq data of peripheral blood from vaccinated and control animals were obtained in different periods of the immunisation trial. A total of 24 mRNA-seq Illumina libraries (single-end, 100 bp) were analysed to identify differential gene expression according to the experimental condition.