Diseases transmitted by Ixodes hard ticks (Acarina; Ixodidae) are facing and increasing incidence and spatial extension, representing a major public health issue [1,2]. Ixodes ricinus is an important vector for a wide range of microorganisms, including pathogens that cause disease in both humans and animals [3]. It is the main vector of Lyme borreliosis (LB) and tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), the two most important tick-borne diseases in Europe caused by the spirochete bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato and the TBE virus (Flavivirus), respectively.
Currently, tick control methods mainly rely on the use of chemical acaricides, which face challenges like insecticide resistance and environmental contamination, while the development of novel control strategies is hampered by a lack of understanding of tick biology and tick-pathogen-host interactions [6]. Yet, no vaccines are available for LB, and TBE vaccination protocols are limited to a few high-risk countries [7]. The development of molecular tools has accelerated the interest in tick biology research, particularly for species identification, blood meal source determination, and pathogen detection [8].
The aim of this PhD project is to provide new entomological tools to describe the ecology of Ixodes ticks in order to gain better insight into tick demography and pathogen transmission determinants. This PhD project will attempt to answer the question of whether MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry can be used to estimate tick age as measured by the time elapsed since the last blood meal, to predict the sex of hunting nymphs, and to predict the host of the last blood meal. The specific objectives are:
-Review the state-of-the-art entomological methods of Ixodes tick’s characterization.
-Identify proteomic and lipidomic biomarkers of Ixodes ticks’ age, sex and blood meal.
-Leverage machine learning for predicting Ixodes ticks’ age, sex and blood meal.
-Evaluate the impact of improving the entomological tools for describing Ixodes ticks’ age, sex and blood meal source on the ecological models of pathogen transmission.