TY - JOUR

T1 - Ixodes persulcatus/pavlovskyi natural hybrids in Siberia

T2 - Occurrence in sympatric areas and infection by a wide range of tick-transmitted agents

AU - Rar, Vera

AU - Livanova, Natalia

AU - Sabitova, Yuliya

AU - Igolkina, Yana

AU - Tkachev, Sergey

AU - Tikunov, A.

AU - Babkin, Igor

AU - Golovljova, I.

AU - Panov, Victor

AU - Tikunova, Nina

N1 - Funding Information: The work was supported by Russian State funded budget project of ICBFM SB RAS # АААА-А17-117020210027-9 . Publisher Copyright: © 2019 Copyright: Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2019/10

Y1 - 2019/10

N2 - Ixodes persulcatus and Ixodes pavlovskyi ticks, two closely related species of the I. ricinus - I. persulcatus group, are widely distributed in the southern part of Western Siberia. Recently, the existence of natural hybrids of I. persulcatus and I. pavlovskyi ticks has been demonstrated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the abundance of I. persulcatus/pavlovskyi hybrids in several locations with different ratios of parental tick species and to investigate the prevalence and genetic variability of a wide range of infectious agents in these hybrids compared to the parental tick species. Natural hybrids of I. persulcatus and I. pavlovskyi ticks were identified in all examined locations in Altai and Novosibirsk, Western Siberia, Russia. The abundance of hybrids varied from 7% to 40% in different locations and was maximal in a location with similar proportions of I. persulcatus and I. pavlovskyi ticks. For the first time, it was shown that hybrids can be infected with the same agents as their parental tick species: tick-borne encephalitis and Kemerovo viruses, Borrelia afzelii, Borrelia bavariensis, Borrelia garinii, Borrelia miyamotoi, Rickettsia helvetica, Rickettsia raoultii, Rickettsia sibirica, “Candidatus Rickettsia tarasevichiae”, Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Ehrlichia muris, “Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis”, and Babesia microti. The prevalence of most bacterial agents in hybrids was intermediate compared to their parental tick species. Most genetic variants of the identified agents have been previously found in the parental tick species. Wide distribution of I. persulcatus/pavlovskyi natural hybrids implies that I. persulcatus, I. pavlovskyi and their hybrids coexist in all I. persulcatus - I. pavlovskyi sympatric areas.

AB - Ixodes persulcatus and Ixodes pavlovskyi ticks, two closely related species of the I. ricinus - I. persulcatus group, are widely distributed in the southern part of Western Siberia. Recently, the existence of natural hybrids of I. persulcatus and I. pavlovskyi ticks has been demonstrated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the abundance of I. persulcatus/pavlovskyi hybrids in several locations with different ratios of parental tick species and to investigate the prevalence and genetic variability of a wide range of infectious agents in these hybrids compared to the parental tick species. Natural hybrids of I. persulcatus and I. pavlovskyi ticks were identified in all examined locations in Altai and Novosibirsk, Western Siberia, Russia. The abundance of hybrids varied from 7% to 40% in different locations and was maximal in a location with similar proportions of I. persulcatus and I. pavlovskyi ticks. For the first time, it was shown that hybrids can be infected with the same agents as their parental tick species: tick-borne encephalitis and Kemerovo viruses, Borrelia afzelii, Borrelia bavariensis, Borrelia garinii, Borrelia miyamotoi, Rickettsia helvetica, Rickettsia raoultii, Rickettsia sibirica, “Candidatus Rickettsia tarasevichiae”, Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Ehrlichia muris, “Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis”, and Babesia microti. The prevalence of most bacterial agents in hybrids was intermediate compared to their parental tick species. Most genetic variants of the identified agents have been previously found in the parental tick species. Wide distribution of I. persulcatus/pavlovskyi natural hybrids implies that I. persulcatus, I. pavlovskyi and their hybrids coexist in all I. persulcatus - I. pavlovskyi sympatric areas.

KW - Genetic variability

KW - Infectious agents

KW - Ixodes pavlovskyi

KW - Ixodes persulcatus

KW - Natural hybrids

KW - Western Siberia

KW - Borrelia burgdorferi Group/classification

KW - Male

KW - Phylogeny

KW - Anaplasmataceae/classification

KW - Orbivirus/classification

KW - Rickettsia/classification

KW - Sequence Alignment

KW - Animals

KW - Encephalitis Viruses, Tick-Borne/classification

KW - Hybridization, Genetic

KW - Base Sequence

KW - Siberia

KW - Female

KW - Ixodes/genetics

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85069548471&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.ttbdis.2019.05.020

DO - 10.1016/j.ttbdis.2019.05.020

M3 - Article

C2 - 31327746

AN - SCOPUS:85069548471

VL - 10

JO - Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases

JF - Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases

SN - 1877-959X

IS - 6

M1 - 101254

ER -