Abstract The Arachnida subclass of Acari comprises many harmful pests that threaten
agriculture as well as animal health, including herbivorous spider mites, the bee parasite …

Hematophagous arthropods are responsible for the transmission of a variety of pathogens
that cause disease in humans and animals. Ticks of the Ixodes ricinus complex are vectors …

Host-parasite interactions exert strong selection pressures on the genomes of both host and
parasite. These interactions can lead to negative frequency-dependent selection, a form of …

Uncovering the complexity of systems in non-model organisms is critical for understanding
arthropod immunology. Prior efforts have mostly focused on Dipteran insects, which only …

The hematophagy behavior has evolved independently several times within the Arthropoda
phylum. Interestingly, the process of acquiring a blood meal in ticks is considerably distinct …

Although genetic manipulation is one of the hallmarks of model organisms, its applicability to
non-model species has remained difficult due to our limited understanding of their …

Ixodes scapularis, the black-legged tick, is the principal vector of the Lyme disease
spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, and is responsible for most of the∼ 470,000 estimated …

Gene duplication generates new genetic material that can contribute to the evolution of gene
regulatory networks and phenotypes. Duplicated genes can undergo subfunctionalization to …

Tick and tick-borne disease control have been a serious research focus for many decades.
In a global climate of increasing acaricide resistance, host immunity against tick infestation …

Ticks are ectoparasites that feed on blood and have an impressive ability to consume and
process enormous amounts of host blood, allowing extremely long periods of starvation …