A deep insight into the whole transcriptome of midguts, ovaries and salivary glands of the Amblyomma sculptum tick

- 27,308 CDS annotated from whole transcriptome of Amblyomma sculptum internal organs (midguts, ovaries and salivary glands)
- 23,248 CDS were related to housekeeping proteins and 2,177 CDS related to secreted proteins
- The mapping analysis revealed 25,569 CDS expressed at midguts, 21,230 CDS from ovaries and 10,967 from salivary glands
- 29 functional gene classes expressed at three organs

Ticks stand out as the second most important vector of human pathogens and their control is a key issue for public health strategies. The success of these arthropods to parasitize a large range of vertebrate hosts and their importance as a vector of rickettsiosis are intimately related with the physiology of its internal organs. The midguts, ovaries and salivary glands all participate as key sites for rickettsial entry into tick hemolymph, ovarian amplification and transmission to vertebrate hosts, respectively. Although transcriptomic efforts have documented several tick sialomes aspects, very little is known about the repertoire of genes that orchestrate the physiology of midguts and ovaries. The aim of this study was to construct a deep catalogue from the repertoire of genes and putative proteins expressed in the selected internal organs of Amblyomma scultpum, a key vector of spotted fever rickettsiosis, through the employment of a RNAseq strategy. A total of 200 million reads derived from midguts, ovaries and salivary glands and sequenced by Illumina HiSeq, Ion Torrent PGM and 454 pyrosequencing, were assembled into contigs. The mapping of the contigs allowed for the identification of 25,569 CDS expressed in midguts, 21,230 in the ovaries and 10,697 in salivary glands. In depth analysis of the transcriptomes revealed several organ specific metabolic processes that expand the knowledge base of tick biology and its role in infectious diseases. The annotation approach used in this work facilitated the discovery of a higher number of novel genes and processes and gives insight into the roles that they play in the A. scultpum transcriptome.

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