microplus in China [58]. Detection of the

HDAC inhibitor R. microplus -associated Borrelia in the gut and ovary reported here parallels the systemic infection with B. theileri where no adverse effects were observed in tick viability [33, 59]. Like the Borrelia DNA sequences detected in this study, specific identification awaits for other Borrelia microbes isolated from R. microplus in diverse geographic locations [60–62]. However, R. microplus may be acting as a bridging vector facilitating the transmission of microbes across vertebrate hosts and possibly influencing ecological and evolutionary aspects of their natural history. The degree of similarity at the nucleotide level between a Mexican isolate of B. theileri and Borrelia spp. infecting A. americanum from the Northeast region of the USA suggests recent divergence [63]. Because white-tailed deer and cattle used to be sympatric throughout the southern USA prior to 1943, which is when cattle ticks were officially eradicated, it has been hypothesized that spirochetes infecting A. americanum may represent a host shift of B. theileri as R. microplus could have transmitted the spirochete to both ungulate hosts [64]. A Borrelia spp. detected in R. microplus from

Brazil was shown to be closely related to B. theileri and Borrelia lonestari and the cattle tick-deer relationship was suggested as a natural process for the spread and/or maintenance of Borrelia spp. [65]. Although bacteria in the genus Wolbachia are generally found in reproductive tissues, the R. microplus -associated Wolbachia EPZ-6438 in vitro was not detected in ovarian tissue, but in the two adult female ticks assayed individually. Since ticks from a laboratory colony established in 1999 were the source of the ovarian tissue samples, it is plausible that Lepirudin Wolbachia infection was lost during the colonization process. It is also possible that laboratory rearing conditions allowed the Coxiella strain in the R. microplus ovaries sampled to out-compete pre-existing Wolbachia microbes with the eventual loss of infection in La Minita strain. Detection of the Wolbachia- type microbe in adult female ticks does not necessarily

mean that the ovary was the only tissue infected. Disseminated Wolbachia infection has been documented in other arthropod vector species and similar events were reported for a Coxiella endosymbiont infecting A. americanum where the salivary glands were also infected [50, 66]. The possibility for click here horizontal transmission would exist if Wolbachia infection of the R. microplus salivary glands were to occur. The horizontal transmission of Wolbachia microbes has been documented to occur more often than previously thought [67–69]. However, it has been shown in mosquitoes that the size of Wolbachia symbionts would prevent its free passage through the salivary ducts [70]. The functional relevance of our findings and observations needs to be tested.