Andréa Cristina Fogaça

TL;DR: The antibacterial activity detected in tick gut contents is the result of enzymatic processing of a host protein, hemoglobin, which may be used by ticks as a defense against microorganisms.

TL;DR: Interestingly, despite the fact that microplusin and defensin have been isolated from different compartments, their gene expression was found to have similar tissue distribution and the cDNA cloning established thatmicroplusin is synthesized as a prepeptide while the tick defens in is synthesizing as a prepromolecule.

TL;DR: The newly described AMP, designated ixodidin (derived from the Family Ixodidae), was found to exert proteolytic inhibitory activity against two exogenous serine proteinases, elastase and chymotrypsin.

TL;DR: A combination of Edman degradation, mass spectrometry and cDNA cloning revealed the presence of two isoforms of acanthoscurrin, differing by two glycine residues, which have no structural similarities with already known glycine-rich antimicrobial peptides from animals and plants.

TL;DR: This is the first study that reports the effects of an experimental infection with the highly virulent R. rickettsii on the gene expression of two natural tick vectors and the distinct transcriptional profiles of MG of A. sculptum and A. aureolatum upon infection stimulus strongly suggest that molecular factors in this organ are responsible for delineating the susceptibility to R. Ricksettsii.