Source: UNIV OF MINNESOTA submitted to
BIOLOGY, ECOLOGY & MANAGEMENT OF EMERGING DISEASE VECTORS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
HATCH
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1005047
Grant No.
(N/A)
Cumulative Award Amt.
(N/A)
Proposal No.
(N/A)
Multistate No.
NE-1443
Project Start Date
Oct 2, 2014
Project End Date
Sep 30, 2019
Grant Year
(N/A)
Program Code
[(N/A)]- (N/A)
Recipient Organization
UNIV OF MINNESOTA
(N/A)
ST PAUL,MN 55108
Performing Department
Entomology
Non Technical Summary
1. Development of parasitic arthropod catalogue/resourcesThere are many biological resources available at laboratories of participating researchers, such as colonies of mosquitoes and ticks, mosquito and tick cell lines, and cultures of disease agents transmitted by these. These are valuable tools that will help advance research at participating and other labs2. Integrated tick management and community-centered approaches, including understanding the biology and ecology of novel and emerging tick-borne pathogensIn this age of global change, insects and ticks that impact human and animal health are expanding their former range. For effective control of new disease agents carried by arthropods, it is necessary to understand how they persist in nature, and how they interact with other natural entities, such as the environment and the human-altered landscape. It is important to engage and educate affected communities through appropriate, targeted outreach activities.3. Ae. albopictus and Ae. aegypti, with a focus on surveillance, invasion ecology, geneticsThe threat of continued spread of the Asian tiger mosquito and the yellow fever mosquito continues with increasing global temperatures. This objective will determine what environmental factors and biological characteristics of the mosquitoes can contribute to their survival in new areas, and what the risk is of introduction of new disease agents.4. New Control Tools, including socio-ecological approachesThis objective will focus on application of novel control strategies that would utilize the mosquitoes themselves to help spread diseases that kill these insect, or emphasize development of technology such as remote-controlled small aircraft to deliver insecticides to specific target. The application of these tools will involve local communities to maximize their acceptance and imnpact5. Training and training toolsThe key outcome will be training delivered to developing scientists within the field of Medical and Veterinary Entomology. Tools will be (1) a training course inconjunction with one or more Multistate meetings and (2) Publication of a position paper regarding the development of the next generation of scientists within our field.
Animal Health Component
30%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
40%
Applied
30%
Developmental
30%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
7224010107050%
1350530108050%
Knowledge Area
135 - Aquatic and Terrestrial Wildlife; 722 - Zoonotic Diseases and Parasites Affecting Humans;

Subject Of Investigation
4010 - Bacteria; 0530 - Parks and urban green space;

Field Of Science
1070 - Ecology; 1080 - Genetics;
Goals / Objectives
Development of parasitic arthropod catalogue/resources Integrated tick management and community-centered approaches, including understanding the biology and ecology of novel and emerging tick-borne pathogens New Control Tools, including socio-ecological approaches Training and training tools Ae. albopictus and Ae. aegypti, with a focus on surveillance, invasion ecology, genetics
Project Methods
Resources database: Direct email inquiries to the participating community of researchers.Collaboration with ATCC/BEI to identify areas and resources that are not covered by these collections.Assessment of tick expansion and disease surveillance: Field collection of ticks, and identification using established keys, and by molecular methods; assessment of tick infection status by PCR.Training: On-site courses in conjunction with relevant meetings, using lectures and demonstrations delivered by project participants.

Progress 10/02/14 to 09/30/19

Outputs
Target Audience:Professional colleagues (faculty members, students) at other academic institutions, e.g., University of Wisconsin, Madison (Dr. Lyric Bartholomay). Academia-based scientists interested in tick biology and tick-borne pathogens Students enrolled in programs on arthropod-borne zoonotic pathogens Students and scientists studying ticks Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The research results have been published. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?This is the final report. For the renewal project, we willidentify thge insertion sites in the other mutants that were generated. They will be available to other researchers uponrequest, subject to a material transfer agreement.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? (1) Development of parasitic arthropod catalogue/resources: We established and chracterized a mouse model of human ehrlichiosis that recapitulates human disease accurately. For this, we obtained a field isolate of the agent, sequenced its genome, and transformed it to express fluorescent markers suitable for in vitr and in vivo tracking.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Lynn GE, Burkhardt NY, Felsheim RF, Nelson CM, Oliver JD, Kurtti TJ, Cornax I, O'Sullivan MG, Munderloh UG. Ehrlichia Isolate from a Minnesota Tick: Characterization and Genetic Transformation. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2019 Jul 1;85(14).


Progress 10/01/17 to 09/30/18

Outputs
Target Audience:Academia-based scientists interested in tick biology and tick-borne pathogens Students enrolled in programs on arthropod-borne zoonotic pathogens Students and scientists studying ticks Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Graduate student Geoff Lynn accepted a position as scientist at the CDC, and after completion of this government position, moved to the lab of Dr. Errol Fikrig at Yale, to work with Anaplasma phagocytophilum. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results were published in peer-reviewed journals, and presented at scientific meetings internatiponally and in the US. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will continue working with the mouse model of human ehrlichiosis to identify gene function using randommutagenesis and mechanistic analyses.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We developed a mouse model of human ehrlichiosis that replicates disease in humans accurately, This will allow development of effective treatments and vaccine. Further, the behavior of Ehrlichia muris eauclairensis in its natural reservoir, white-footed mice (Peromuyscus leucopus) was analyzed in detail, and differed from infection in laboratory mic in two ways: white-footed mice were less susceptible to severe dissease than laboratry strains of mice, but the former developed infection of the cerebellum accompanied by neurologic signs such as tremors. Ticks (larval andnymphal Ixodes scapularis) were afficient at acquisition and transmission of the pathogen, and classical co-feeding acquisition (as shown for the European tick-borne encephalitis viruses) was not demonstrated. Thus. E. muris eauclairensis is transmitted by ticks in the same manner as Anaplasmaphagocytophilum. In preparation for studies on th efunction of genes responsible for pathogenesis, we generated~60 mutants ofE. muris eauclairensis.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Lynn GE, Oliver JD, Cornax I, O'Sullivan MG, Munderloh UG. Experimental evaluation of Peromyscus leucopus as a reservoir host of the Ehrlichia muris-like agent. Parasit Vectors. 2017 Jan 28;10(1):48


Progress 10/01/16 to 09/30/17

Outputs
Target Audience:Academia-based scientists interested in tick biology and tick-borne pathogens Students enrolled in programs on arthropod-borne zoonotic pathogens Students and scientists studying ticks Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Peer-reviewed publication, training of colleagues at other institutions, scientifcmeeting presentations What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Conrtinue dissemination of research materials and knowledge to contribute to goals 1 and 2

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1) Tick cell lines and tick-borne pathogen isolates continue to be made available to the research community. These include specific mutants bearing fluorescent markers for tissue tracking and microscopy 2) The newly identified EMLA has been formally characterized and named Ehrlichia muris eauclairensis

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Pritt BS, Allerdice MEJ, Sloan LM, Paddock CD, Munderloh UG, Rikihisa Y, Tajima T, Paskewitz SM, Neitzel DF, Johnson DKH, Schiffman E, Davis JP, Goldsmith CS, Nelson CM, Karpathy SE. 2017. Proposal to reclassify Ehrlichia muris as Ehrlichia muris subsp. muris subsp. nov. and description of Ehrlichia muris subsp. eauclairensis subsp. nov., a newly recognized tick-borne pathogen of humans in the upper midwestern United States. IJSEM, 67(7):2121-2126.


Progress 10/01/15 to 09/30/16

Outputs
Target Audience:Academia-based scientists interested in tick biology and tick-borne pathogens Students enrolled in programs on arthropod-borne zoonotic pathogens Students and scientists studying ticks Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Publicagtion of journal articles, presentation of talks at the meeting of the American Society for Rickettsiology What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Distribute tick cell lines to additional labs. Design n-counter or multiplex-PCR-based tool for identification of pathogens. Establish routine to identify mosquitoes and ticks using barcodes.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Tick cell lines have been distributed to participating labs requesting them, and training has been provided in their cultivation.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Nair AS, Chen C, Ganta CK, Sanderson MW, Alleman AR, Munderloh UG, Ganta RR. 2016. Comparative Experimental Infection Study in Dogs with Ehrlichia canis, E. chaffeensis, Anaplasma platys and A. phagocytophilum. PLoS One. 11(2):e0148239
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2017 Citation: Lynn GE, Burkhardt NY, Felsheim RF, Nelson CM, Oliver JD, Kurtti TJ, Munderloh UG. In revision. Characterization and genetic transformation of an Ehrlichia isolated from a Minnesota tick. Applied and Environmental Microbiology.


Progress 10/02/14 to 09/30/15

Outputs
Target Audience:Academia-based scientists interested in tick biology and tick-borne pathogens Students enrolled in programs on arthropod-borne zoonotic pathogens Students and scientists studying ticks Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training for one postdoctoral research associate in Entomology. Training included molecular microbiology and cell biology techniques, manuscript and grant writing, meeting presentations. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Peer-reviewed publications, meeting presentations. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Investigating the interaction of different tick-borne pathogens and tick symbionts in individual ticks, acquisition from infected rodents by blood feeding and directly during co-feeding of infected and uninfected ticks on the same animal.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Aim #2 - ticks Prepared by Jonathan Oliver for Ulrike Munderloh Several collaborative efforts were proposed regarding Aim 2. 1. Some contributors mentioned that they had difficulty in preserving the quality of extracted tick DNA for later diagnostic tests. This led to a discussion of establishing standardized protocols for tick extraction and common pathogen PCR protocols. It can be difficult for new experimenters to determine what published protocols will work accurately and consistently. Having standardized protocols established which are known to work consistently may produce more reliable results in this field. In our experience, we find the Qiagen Blood and Tissue DNA extraction kits together with pre-washing and dissecting ticks produces DNA that does not rapidly degrade. In the future, we are willing to contribute a consolidated list of the primer sets and thermocycler recipes our laboratory uses for detection of tick-borne pathogens. 2. Dr. Goudarz Molaei of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station demonstrated interest in acquiring some of our tick cell lines and pathogen strains. Follow-up telephone and email conversation have continued to solidify this exchange of materials. 3. Overlapping with Aim 1, we provided Jimmy Becnel with a list of the tick cell lines we have made available to other researchers. This is for his compilation of resources available for arthropod-borne disease of veterinary significance. It was decided that actual pathogenic organisms would not be included in this list at this time, but may be added later.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2016 Citation: Oliver JD, Lynn GE, Burkhardt NY, Price LD, Nelson CM, Kurtti TJ, Munderloh UG. Accepted. Infection of Immature Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae) by Membrane Feeding. J. Med. Ent.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Wang J, Dyachenko V, Munderloh UG, Straubinger RK. 2015. Transmission of Anaplasma phagocytophilum from endothelial cells to peripheral granulocytes in vitro under shear flow conditions. Med Microbiol and Immunol 204(5):593-603