Van Zyl, W.A. (Willem Andries)Stutzer, ChristianOlivier, Nicholas AbrahamMaritz-Olivier, Christine2015-01-282015-01-282015-02Van Zyl, WA, Stutzer, C, Olivier, NA & Maritz-Olivier, C 2015, 'Comparative microarray analyses of adult female midgut tissues from feeding Rhipicephalus species', Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 84-90.1877-959X (print)1877-9603 (online)10.1016/j.ttbdis.2014.09.008http://hdl.handle.net/2263/43455The cattle tick, Rhipicephalus microplus, has a debilitating effect on the livestock industry worldwide, owing to its being a vector of the causative agents of bovine babesiosis and anaplasmosis. In South Africa, co-infestation with R. microplus and R. decoloratus, a common vector species on local livestock, occurs widely in the northern and eastern parts of the country. An alternative to chemical control methods is sought in the form of a tick vaccine to control these tick species. However, sequence information and transcriptional data for R. decoloratus is currently lacking. Therefore, this study aimed at identifying genes that are shared between midgut tissues of feeding adult female R. microplus and R. decoloratus ticks. In this regard, a custom oligonucleotide microarray comprising of 13,477 R. microplus sequences was used for transcriptional profiling and 2476 genes were found to be shared between these Rhipicephalus species. In addition, 136 transcripts were found to be more abundantly expressed in R. decoloratus and 1084 in R. microplus. Chi-square analysis revealed that genes involved in lipid transport and metabolism are significantly overrepresented in R. microplus and R. decoloratus. This study is the first transcriptional profiling of R. decoloratus and is an additional resource that can be evaluated further in future studies for possible tick control.en© 2014 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.Notice : this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 84-90, 2015. doi : 10.1016/j.ttbdis.2014.09.008.Rhipicephalus microplusRhipicephalus decoloratusDNA microarrayCattle tickMidgutdPostprint Article