Bacterial 16S profiling of Ixodes holocyclus, Amblyomma trigutattum, Haemaphysalis longicornis, Haemaphysalis bancrofti targeted loci. insect metagenome

In Australia, a conclusive aetiology of “Lyme-like” illness in human patients remains elusive, despite growing numbers of people presenting with symptoms attributed to tick bites. In the present study, we surveyed the microbial communities harboured by human-biting ticks from across Australia to identify bacteria that may contribute to this syndrome. Universal PCR primers were used to amplify the V1-2 hyper-variable region of bacterial 16S rRNA genes in DNA samples from individual Ixodes holocyclus (n=279), Amblyomma triguttatum (n=167), Haemaphysalis bancrofti (n=7), and H. longicornis (n=7) ticks.