A physiologic overview of the organ-specific transcriptome of the cattle tick Rhipicephalus microplus
Lucas Tirloni, Glória Regina Cardoso Braz, Rodrigo Dutra Nunes, Ana Caroline P. Gandara, Larissa Rezende Vieira, Teresa C. F. Assumpção, Gabriela Alves Sabadin, Renato Martins da Silva, Melina Garcia Guizzo, Josias Alves Machado, Evenilton Pessoa Costa, Daniele das Graças dos Santos, Helga Fernandes Gomes, Jorge Moraes, Maria Beatriz dos Santos Mota, Rafael D. Mesquita, Milane de Souza Leite, Patrícia H. Alvarenga, Flávio Alves Lara, Adriana Seixas, Rodrigo Nunes da Fonseca, Andréa Cristina Fogaça, Carlos Logullo, Aparecida S. Tanaka, Sirlei Daffre, Pedro L. Oliveira, Itabajara da Silva Vaz, José M. C. Ribeiro
Abstract
To further obtain insights into the Rhipicephalus microplus transcriptome, we used RNA-seq to carry out a study of expression in (i) embryos; (ii) ovaries from partially and fully engorged females; (iii) salivary glands from partially engorged females; (iv) fat body from partially and fully engorged females; and (v) digestive cells from partially, and (vi) fully engorged females. We obtained > 500 million Illumina reads which were assembled de novo, producing > 190,000 contigs, identifying 18,857 coding sequences (CDS). Reads from each library were mapped back into the assembled transcriptome giving a view of gene expression in different tissues. Transcriptomic expression and pathway analysis showed that several genes related in blood digestion and host-parasite interaction were overexpressed in digestive cells compared with other tissues. Furthermore, essential genes for the cell development and embryogenesis were overexpressed in ovaries. Taken altogether, these data offer novel insights into the physiology of production and role of saliva, blood digestion, energy metabolism, and development with submission of 10,932 novel tissue/cell specific CDS to the NCBI database for this important tick species.