de la Fuente J, Alejandro Cabezas-Cruz, Margarita Villar, James J. Valdés, Pilar Alberdi, Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (España), Universidad de Castilla La Mancha, European Commission, Czech Academy of Sciences [Prague] (CAS), Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [Madrid] (CSIC), Veterinary Research Institute, Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, Center for Veterinary Health Sciences, and Oklahoma State University [Stillwater]
The obligate intracellular pathogen Anaplasma phagocytophilum infects vertebrate and tick hosts. In this study, a genome-wide search for cytoskeleton components was performed in the tick vector, Ixodes scapularis. The available transcriptomics and proteomics data was then used to characterize the mRNA and protein levels of I. scapularis cytoskeleton components in response to A. phagocytophilum infection. The results showed that cytoskeleton components described in other model organisms were present in the I. scapularis genome. One type of intermediate filaments (lamin), a family of septins that were recently implicated in the cellular response to intracellular pathogens, and several members of motor proteins (kinesins and dyneins) that could be implicated in the cytoplasmic movements of A. phagocytophilum were found. The results showed that levels of tubulin, actin, septin, actin-related proteins and motor proteins were affected by A. phagocytophilum, probably to facilitate infection in I. scapularis. Functional studies demonstrated a role for selected cytoskeleton components in pathogen infection. These results provided a more comprehensive view of the cytoskeletal components involved in the response to A. phagocytophilum infection in ticks., This research was supported by the Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad (Spain) grant BFU2016–79892-P and the European Union (EU) Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) ANTIGONE project number 278976. MV was supported by the Research Plan of the UCLM.