Role of arthropod saliva in blood feeding: sialome and post-sialome perspectives.

This review addresses the problems insects and ticks face to feed on blood and the solutions these invertebrates engender to overcome these obstacles, including a sophisticated salivary cocktail of potent pharmacologic compounds. Recent advances in transcriptome and proteome research allow an unprecedented insight into the complexity of these compounds, indicating that their molecular diversity as well as the diversity of their targets is still larger than previously thought.