Search

The main importance of ticks resides in their ability to harbor pathogens that can be transmitted to terrestrial vertebrates including humans. Recently, studies have focused on the taxonomic and functional composition of the tick microbiome, its microbial diversity and variation under different factors including tick species, sex, and environment among others. Of special interest are the interactions between the tick, the microbiome and pathogens since tick microbiome can influence pathogen colonization within the tick vector, and potentially, transmission to the vertebrate host. In this review, we tackled a synthesis on the growing field of tick microbiomes. We focus on the current state of tick microbiome research, addressing controversial and hotly debated topics and advances in the precise manipulation of tick microbiome. Furthermore, we discuss the innovative anti-tick microbiota vaccines as a possible tool for microbiome modulation and thus, control of tick-borne diseases. Deciphering tick-microbiome pathogen interactions can spur new strategies to control tick-borne diseases via modulation of tick microbiome., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. Given his role as Co-Editor, Agustín Estrada-Peña had no involvement in the peer-review of this article and has no access to information regarding its peer-review. Full responsibility for the editorial process for this article was delegated to Editor-in-Chief Aneta Kostadinova., (© 2021 The Author(s).)