Anti-Microbiota Vaccines Modulate the Tick Microbiome in a Taxon-Specific Manner

Study information

EditHistoryDelete

Mark reviewed

Your review change was submittedAdd a new Experiment

• Quality control
  • Retracted paper
  • Contamination issues suspected
  • Batch effect issues suspected
  • Uncontrolled confounding suspected
  • Results are suspect (various reasons)
  • Apply tags

    Tags applied

Needs review

study design

laboratory experiment

Citation

PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.

34322135

DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.

https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2021.704621

URI Uniform resource identifier for web resources.

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2021.704621/full

Authors

Mateos-Hernández L., Obregón D., Wu-Chuang A., Maye J., Bornères J., Versillé N., de la Fuente J., Díaz-Sánchez S., Bermúdez-Humarán L.G., Torres-Maravilla E., Estrada-Peña A., Hodžić A., Šimo L., Cabezas-Cruz A.

Journal

Frontiers in immunology

Year

2021

Keywords:

anti-microbiota vaccines, keystone bacteria, microbiome modulation, networks analysis, tick

The lack of tools for the precise manipulation of the tick microbiome is currently a major limitation to achieve mechanistic insights into the tick microbiome. Anti-tick microbiota vaccines targeting keystone bacteria of the tick microbiota alter tick feeding, but their impact on the taxonomic and functional profiles of the tick microbiome has not been tested. In this study, we immunized a vertebrate host model (Mus musculus) with live bacteria vaccines targeting keystone (i.e., Escherichia-Shigella) or non-keystone (i.e., Leuconostoc) taxa of tick microbiota and tested the impact of bacterial-specific antibodies (Abs) on the structure and function of tick microbiota. We also investigated the effect of these anti-microbiota vaccines on mice gut microbiota composition. Our results showed that the tick microbiota of ticks fed on Escherichia coli-immunized mice had reduced Escherichia-Shigella abundance and lower species diversity compared to ticks fed on control mice immunized with a mock vaccine. Immunization against keystone bacteria restructured the hierarchy of nodes in co-occurrence networks and reduced the resistance of the bacterial network to taxa removal. High levels of E. coli-specific IgM and IgG were negatively correlated with the abundance of Escherichia-Shigella in tick microbiota. These effects were not observed when Leuconostoc was targeted with vaccination against Leuconostoc mesenteroides. Prediction of functional pathways in the tick microbiome using PICRUSt2 revealed that E. coli vaccination reduced the abundance of lysine degradation pathway in tick microbiome, a result validated by qPCR. In contrast, the gut microbiome of immunized mice showed no significant alterations in the diversity, composition and abundance of bacterial taxa. Our results demonstrated that anti-tick microbiota vaccines are a safe, specific and an easy-to-use tool for manipulation of vector microbiome. These results guide interventions for the control of tick infestations and pathogen infection/transmission.

Experiment 1

EditHistoryDelete

Mark reviewed

Your review change was submittedDuplicate this ExperimentAdd a new Signature

Needs review

Curated date: 2025/10/16

Curator: Tumi

Revision editor(s): Tumi, Fiddyhamma

Subjects

Location of subjects

France

Host species Species from which microbiome was sampled. Contact us to have more species added.

Ixodes ricinus

Body site Anatomical site where microbial samples were extracted from according to the Uber Anatomy Ontology

Entire surface of organism Surface of body,Entire surface of organism,entire surface of organism

Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology

Response to vaccine Response to vaccine,response to vaccine

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies

Ticks fed on mock-immunized mice

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies

L. mesenteroides-immunized mice

Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group

Ticks fed on mice immunized with the non-keystone bacterium L. mesenteroides

Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group

7

Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group

5

Lab analysis

Sequencing type

16S

16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene

V4

Sequencing platform Manufacturer and experimental platform used for quantifying microbial abundance

Illumina

Statistical Analysis

Data transformation Data transformation applied to microbial abundance measurements prior to differential abundance testing (if any).

centered log-ratio

Statistical test

Wald Test

Significance threshold p-value or FDR threshold used for differential abundance testing (if any)

0.001

MHT correction Have statistical tests be corrected for multiple hypothesis testing (MHT)?

No

Alpha Diversity

Pielou Quantifies how equal the community is numerically

decreased

Faith Phylogenetic diversity, takes into account phylogenetic distance of all taxa identified in a sample

unchanged

Signature 1

EditHistoryDelete

Mark reviewed

Your review change was submitted

Needs review

Curated date: 2025/10/17

Curator: Tumi

Revision editor(s): Tumi, Fiddyhamma

Source: Figure 4D

Description: Relative abundance (calculated as clr transformed values) of the 20 top bacterial taxa with the highest significant differences on ticks fed on mock-immunized vs. L. mesenteroides-immunized mice (D) as detected by the DeSeq2 algorithm (Wald test, p < 0.001).

Abundance in Group 1: increased abundance in L. mesenteroides-immunized mice

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Bacillus
Helicobacter
uncultured Lachnospiraceae bacterium
uncultured Rhodanobacteraceaeuncultured Rhodanobacteraceae

Revision editor(s): Tumi, Fiddyhamma

Signature 2

EditHistoryDelete

Mark reviewed

Your review change was submitted

Needs review

Curated date: 2025/10/17

Curator: Tumi

Revision editor(s): Tumi, Fiddyhamma

Source: Figure 4D

Description: Relative abundance (calculated as clr transformed values) of the 20 top bacterial taxa with the highest significant differences on ticks fed on mock-immunized vs. L. mesenteroides-immunized mice (D) as detected by the DeSeq2 algorithm (Wald test, p < 0.001).

Abundance in Group 1: decreased abundance in L. mesenteroides-immunized mice

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Actinomyces
Bacillus
Chryseobacterium
Fastidiosipila
Marvinbryantia
Ruminiclostridium
Sphingobacterium
uncultured Erysipelotrichaceae bacterium
uncultured Lachnospiraceae bacterium

Revision editor(s): Tumi, Fiddyhamma

Experiment 2

EditHistoryDelete

Mark reviewed

Your review change was submittedDuplicate this ExperimentAdd a new Signature

Needs review

Curated date: 2025/10/16

Curator: Tumi

Revision editor(s): Tumi, Fiddyhamma

Differences from previous experiment shown

Subjects

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies

E. coli-immunized mice

Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group

Ticks fed on mice immunized with the keystone bacterium Escherichia-Shigella

Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group

9

Lab analysis

Statistical Analysis

Alpha Diversity

Pielou Quantifies how equal the community is numerically

unchanged

Faith Phylogenetic diversity, takes into account phylogenetic distance of all taxa identified in a sample

decreased

Signature 1

EditHistoryDelete

Mark reviewed

Your review change was submitted

Needs review

Curated date: 2025/10/17

Curator: Tumi

Revision editor(s): Tumi, Fiddyhamma

Source: Figure 4E

Description: Relative abundance (calculated as clr transformed values) of the 20 top bacterial taxa with the highest significant differences on ticks fed on mock-immunized vs. E. coli-immunized mice (E), as detected by the DeSeq2 algorithm (Wald test, p < 0.001).

Abundance in Group 1: increased abundance in E. coli-immunized mice

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Enterococcus
Marvinbryantia
Dermabacter
Bilophila
Lawsonella
Weeksellaceae
Eubacterium xylanophilum groupEubacterium xylanophilum group

Revision editor(s): Tumi, Fiddyhamma

Signature 2

EditHistoryDelete

Mark reviewed

Your review change was submitted

Needs review

Curated date: 2025/10/20

Curator: Fiddyhamma

Revision editor(s): Fiddyhamma

Source: Figure 4E

Description: Relative abundance (calculated as clr transformed values) of the 20 top bacterial taxa with the highest significant differences on ticks fed on mock-immunized vs. E. coli-immunized mice (E), as detected by the DeSeq2 algorithm (Wald test, p < 0.001).

Abundance in Group 1: decreased abundance in E. coli-immunized mice

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Hydrogenophilus
Thomasclavelia
Pasteurella
Parabacteroides
Monoglobus
Mucispirillum
Parasutterella
Sphingobium
Bacteroides
Enterococcus
Roseomonas
Micrococcus
Escherichia shigellaEscherichia shigella
Clostridia UCG 014Clostridia UCG 014

Revision editor(s): Fiddyhamma