Diversity of the bacterial and viral communities in the tropical horse tick, Dermacentor nitens, in Colombia

We characterized the bacterial and viral communities associated with partially fed D. nitens females collected by a passive survey on horses from field sites representing three distinct geographical areas in Colombia, Bolivar, Antioquia, and Cordoba. RNA-seq and sequencing of the V3 and V4 hypervariable regions of the 16S rRNA gene were performed using the Illumina-Miseq platform. A total of 356 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were identified, in which the presumed endosymbiotic Francisellaceae/Francisella spp. dominated.