tick in Biological News

Study shows more genes are controlled by biological clocks

... Arnold. "The methods used to characterize what makes a biological clock tick will have numerous applications in finding genetic networks describing ... UGA scientists discovered how three genes in Neurospora make such a clock tick at the molecular level. That discovery also had broad implications for ...

Researchers to study lyme-like illness in Texas

... co-workers have isolated and characterized 224 Borrelia strains from five tick species and four species of rodents carrying the disease. Norris is ... of Entomology and is an expert in environmental factors affecting tick populations in Texas and other regions. Edwin Masters, M.D., a physician ...

K-State specialist in tick-borne pathogens receives $1.8 million grant

... the initial defenses of the immune system of the animal or human the tick bites, according to Ganta. When bacteria enters the mammalian body the ... using cells from mice and from ticks. The current study revealed that the tick cells are what made the difference, and that the tick's ecology changes ...

Instances of mass die-offs in wild lions precipitated by extreme climate change

... drought conditions, which led to debilitated populations of Cape buffalo, the lion's prey. After the resumption of rains the buffalo suffered heavy tick infestations, resulting in high levels of a tick-borne blood parasite in the lion population, which in combination with CDV infection led to mass ...

New, rare and threatened species discovered in Ghana

... (Bycanistes cylindricus) and the Nimba flycatcher (Melaenornis annamarulae)(first time recorded in Ghana); and nine species new to science: a spider tick whose lineage is as old as the dinosaurs and eight species of katydids. (See a more detailed list of findings at the end of this release.) ...

A new view on Lyme disease: Rodents hold the key to annual risk

... of Lyme disease in a given year: abundance of tick hosts--white-footed mice and chipmunks--in the ... deer population dynamics as determinants of tick abundance and disease risk. But few have ... It's thought that higher temperatures keep tick populations down, but the models showed them ...

Researchers identify protein crucial for survival of Lyme-disease bacterium

... of blood, it is unable to be transmitted from the tick to a new animal host, researchers at UT ... burgdorfei (Bb) to survive in the gut of its tick host and may offer a potential new target for ... and in the midgut of ticks. When an infected tick bites an animal or a human, the bacteria are ...

Ticks, flukes, and genomics: Emerging pathogens revealed

... sits on the bacteria's outer membrane surface. When the bacteria, through tick bites, transfers to a human, say, or horse, the bacteria chooses the ... pathogens, for instance, appear capable of making vitamins that a host tick lacks in its regular diet. "This study is a beautiful example of how ...

Scientists show that tick-borne flaviviruses use a novel mechanism to evade host defenses

... 1950s in Malaysia and Thailand. Langat virus can infect people following a tick bite, but there are no cases of natural disease recorded. In the 1970s ... (found in western India). "These diseases are spread by the same tick that carries Lyme disease in the U.S.," says Dr. Bloom. "So, the fact that ...

Keeping the body in sync -- The stability of cellular clocks

... This result is consistent with recent research from the University of California, San Francisco involving families whose circadian clocks don’t tick quite right. These families?clocks are shorter than 24 hours, and they also have mutations in oscillator-related genes. The current results shed ...

Infectious disease expert warns of spread of Rocky Mountain spotted fever

... for children and pets. All patients owned and had come in contact with dogs with the infected ticks. Four of the patients had a recent history of tick bite. Tests of the dogs' blood confirmed their infection with the spotted fever bacterium. Feral dogs and brown dog ticks are not a species found ...

For first time, brain cells generated in a dish

... to the research. "In terms of tumors, it's known that stem-like cells have characteristics much like cancer cells. Knowing what makes these cells tick may help by furthering our knowledge of the biology of the tumor." ...

Scientists reveal how disease bacterium survives inside immune system cell

... a tick-borne bacterium that causes granulocytic anaplasmosis in people, dogs, horses and cows. A. phagocytophilum is carried by the same tick that transmits Lyme disease and was first identified in humans in 1996. Human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA) -- formerly called human granulocytic ...

Bee mites suppress bee immunity, open door for viruses and bacteria

... deaths which includes suppression of the bee immune system by the mites. The Varroa destructor mite is a honey bee parasite that feeds much like a tick on the body of a bee. The mites are about the size of a pin head, dark brown in color and visible on close inspection. This bee mite probably ...

Multiple Campylobacter Genomes Sequenced

... spread, and how to treat the infections caused by them. By comparing genome sequences, scientists can learn much more about what makes a bacteria tick than they can learn from a single sequence. Derrick Fouts and his colleagues have taken this comparative approach with Campylobacter. Infection ...