ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Insect Sci.
Sec. Insect Health and Pathology
Blood Feeding-Induced Transcriptomic Changes in the hard tick Ixodes persulcatus
Provisionally accepted
- 1Zhejiang Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Zhejiang CDC), Hangzhou, China
- 2Jinhua center for disease control and prevention, JinHua, China
- 3Institute of Insect Sciences, Zhejiang University,, Hangzhou, China
- 4Indiana University Department of Medicine, Indianapolis, United States
- 5Hangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hangzhou, China
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Ticks are hematophagous ectoparasites that must overcome significant physiological challenges during blood feeding. These include managing oxidative stress, detoxifying host-derived molecules, and reallocating energy to support digestion, tissue remodeling, and reproduction. In this study, we conducted a de novo transcriptome assembly and genome-wide transcriptional profiling of female Ixodes persulcatus ticks at three key feeding stages: unfed, semi-engorged, and fully engorged. We generated a reference transcriptome containing 56,900 unigenes. Comprehensive analyses of metabolic detoxification and antioxidant systems revealed species-specific expansions in key supergene families such as cytochrome P450s and glutathione S-transferases. The expression profiles across feeding stages revealed pronounced physiological changes in response to blood meal, and Gene Ontology enrichment analysis showed that these changes were mainly involved in blood acquisition, nutrient metabolism, respiratory processes, hormone synthesis, egg development, immune responses, ROS detoxification, transcription and translation. These findings offer new insights into the molecular physiology of tick hematophagy and provide a valuable resource for future studies on stress responses and metabolic regulation in ticks.
Keywords: antioxidant system, Blood meal, Ixodes persulcatus, Leishmania, Metabolic detoxification system, Transcriptome
Received: 24 Jul 2025; Accepted: 02 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Lou, Wu, YAO, Zhang, Xu, Yang, Zhang and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xuechao Zhang
Zhangnv Yang
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