Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2025
DOI
10.3390/microorganisms13040888
Publication Title
Microorganisms
Volume
13
Issue
4
Pages
888 (1-14)
Abstract
Host microbiota may impact disease vector behavior and pathogen transmission, but little is known about associations between ectoparasites and microbial communities in wildlife reservoir species. We used Illumina metagenomic sequencing to explore the impacts of tick parasitism on the rodent fecal microbiome in both a field and laboratory setting. We found that tick parasitism on wild hosts was associated with variation in the fecal microbiota of both the white-footed deermouse, Peromyscus leucopus, and the southern cotton rat, Sigmodon hispidus. In a lab experiment, we detected significant changes to the fecal microbiome after experimental exposure to immature ticks in treated versus control BALB/c mice. Whereas there is variation in the fecal microbiome associated with each of the host species we tested, some of the same microbial taxa, notably members of the family Muribaculaceae, occurred at higher relative abundance in tick-parasitized hosts in both the field and laboratory studies, suggesting that there are consistent impacts of tick parasitism on the host gut microbiome. We recommend future studies to test the hypothesis that epithelial cell secretions, generated as part of the host's immune response to tick parasitism, could provide resources that allow particular microbial lineages in the mammalian gut to flourish.
Rights
© 2025 by the authors.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License.
Data Availability
Article states: "The original contributions presented in this study are included in the article. Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author."
Original Publication Citation
Brinkerhoff, R. J., Pandian, J., Leber, M., Hauser, I. D., & Gaff, H. D. (2025). Impacts of tick parasitism on the rodent gut microbiome. Microorganisms, 13(4), 1-14, Article 888. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms13040888
Repository Citation
Brinkerhoff, Robert J.; Pandian, Joshua; Leber, Meghan; Hauser, Isabella D.; and Gaff, Holly D., "Impacts of Tick Parasitism on the Rodent Gut Microbiome" (2025). Biological Sciences Faculty Publications. 627.
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/biology_fac_pubs/627
ORCID
0000-0002-4034-2684 (Gaff)