Molecular Characterization of Haemaphysalis Species and a Molecular Genetic Key for the Identification of Haemaphysalis of North America

Alec T Thompson; Kristen Dominguez; Christopher A Cleveland; Shaun J Dergousoff; Kandai Doi; Richard C Falco; Telleasha Greay; Peter Irwin; L Robbin Lindsay; Jingze Liu; Thomas N Mather; Charlotte L Oskam; Roger I Rodriguez-Vivas; Mark G Ruder; David Shaw; Stacey L Vigil; Seth White; Michael J Yabsley

doi:10.3389/fvets.2020.00141

Molecular Characterization of Haemaphysalis Species and a Molecular Genetic Key for the Identification of Haemaphysalis of North America

Front Vet Sci. 2020 Mar 13:7:141. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2020.00141. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Alec T Thompson^{1

2}, Kristen Dominguez¹, Christopher A Cleveland¹, Shaun J Dergousoff³, Kandai Doi⁴, Richard C Falco⁵, Telleasha Greay⁶, Peter Irwin⁶, L Robbin Lindsay⁷, Jingze Liu⁸, Thomas N Mather⁹, Charlotte L Oskam⁶, Roger I Rodriguez-Vivas¹⁰, Mark G Ruder¹, David Shaw¹, Stacey L Vigil¹, Seth White^{1

11}, Michael J Yabsley^{1

2

11}

Affiliations

¹ Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, Department of Population Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, United States.
² Center for the Ecology of Infectious Diseases, Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, United States.
³ Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lethbridge Research and Development Centre, Lethbridge, AB, Canada.
⁴ Laboratory of Wildlife Medicine, Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University, Musashino, Japan.
⁵ New York State Department of Health, Louis Calder Center, Fordham University, Armonk, NY, United States.
⁶ Vector and Waterborne Pathogens Research Group, College of Science, Health, Engineering and Education, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA, Australia.
⁷ Public Health Agency of Canada, National Microbiology Laboratory, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
⁸ Key Laboratory of Animal Physiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Hebei Province, College of Life Sciences, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, China.
⁹ Center for Vector-Borne Diseases, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, United States.
¹⁰ Campus of Biology and Agricultural Sciences, Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Husbandry, National Autonomous University of Yucatan, Merida, Mexico.
¹¹ Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, United States.

Abstract

Haemaphysalis longicornis (Acari: Ixodidae), the Asian longhorned tick, is native to East Asia, but has become established in Australia and New Zealand, and more recently in the United States. In North America, there are other native Haemaphysalis species that share similar morphological characteristics and can be difficult to identify if the specimen is damaged. The goal of this study was to develop a cost-effective and rapid molecular diagnostic assay to differentiate between exotic and native Haemaphysalis species to aid in ongoing surveillance of H. longicornis within the United States and help prevent misidentification. We demonstrated that restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) targeting the 16S ribosomal RNA and the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) can be used to differentiate H. longicornis from the other Haemaphysalis species found in North America. Furthermore, we show that this RFLP assay can be applied to Haemaphysalis species endemic to other regions of the world for the rapid identification of damaged specimens. The work presented in this study can serve as the foundation for region specific PCR-RFLP keys for Haemaphysalis and other tick species and can be further applied to other morphometrically challenging taxa.

Keywords: Asian longhorned tick; Haemaphysalis; PCR-RFLP; invasive; molecular key; phylogenetic.

Copyright © 2020 Thompson, Dominguez, Cleveland, Doi, Falco, Greay, Irwin, Liu, Mather, Oskam, Rodriguez-Vivas, Ruder, Shaw, Vigil, White, Yabsley, and Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada (for Dergousoff and Lindsay).

Grants and funding

R25 GM109435/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States