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.

View this article at: 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.

View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/44402?key=755d15fe8a48aab7f4bf