Antifreeze molecule enhances survival of bacteria-carrying ticks
BACTERIOLOGY:
Ticks can carry and transmit to humans disease-causing bacteria. For
example, the black-legged tick, Ixodes scapularis, can transmit several bacteria
that cause disease in humans, including Anaplasma phagocytophilum, which
causes human granulocytic anaplasmosis, a disease characterized by fever,
severe headache, muscle aches, chills, and shaking. If bacteria can in any
way enhance the survival of the ticks that transmit them, this increases
their likelihood of infecting a human, thereby impacting human health. A team
of researchers, led by Erol Fikrig, at Yale University School of Medicine,
New Haven, has now determined that Anaplasma phagocytophilum induces Ixodes
scapularis ticks to express an antifreeze molecule that enhances tick
survival in the cold. As Ixodes scapularis ticks overwinter in the US in the
Northeast and Upper Midwest, this likely increases the number of Anaplasma
phagocytophilum available to infect humans. As noted by Stephen Dumler, at The
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, in an accompanying
commentary, these data highlight how important understanding ecology and
tick biology can be to unraveling the intricacies of human disease.
TITLE: Anaplasma phagocytophilum induces Ixodes scapularis ticks to
express an antifreeze glycoprotein gene that enhances their survival in the cold
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Erol Fikrig
Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
Phone: 203.785.4140; Fax: 203.785.3864; Email: _erol.fikrig@yale.edu._
(mailto:www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-08/erol.fikrig@yale.edu.)
View this article at:
_http://www.jci.org/articles/view/42868?key=84783f9002c86e2c3682_
(http://www.jci.org/articles/view/42868?key=84783f9002c86e2c3682)
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY TITLE: Fitness and freezing: vector biology and
human health
AUTHOR CONTACT:
J. Stephen Dumler
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Phone: 410.955.8654; Fax: 443.287.3665; E-mail _sdumler@jhmi.edu_
(mailto:www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-08/sdumler@jhmi.edu) .
View this article at:
_http://www.jci.org/articles/view/44402?key=755d15fe8a48aab7f4bf_
(http://www.jci.org/articles/view/44402?key=755d15fe8a48aab7f4bf)
========================
How fiendishly clever!
DR RV
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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