RT Journal Article
T1 Vertebrate host or tick vector? Which is to blame for Borrelia lusitaniae population structure?
A1 Norte, Ana Cláudia
A1 Carretero, Miguel A.
A1 da Silva, Luís P.
A1 Moreno-Rueda, Gregorio
A1 Garrido-Bautista, Jorge
A1 Zamora-Camacho, Francisco Javier
A1 Comas, Mar
A1 Gómez-Ramirez, Fernando
A1 Rato, Catarina
A1 Ramos, Jaime A.
A1 Rocha, Afonso
A1 Laghzaoui, El-Mustapha
A1 Megía Palma, Rodrigo Manuel
A1 Civantos Calzada, Emilio
A1 Núncio, M. Sofia
A1 Lopes de Carvalho, Isabel
A1 Fingerle, Volker
A1 Margos, Gabriele
AB ObjectiveBorrelia lusitaniae is a lizard-associated spirochaete which shows highly genetically structured populations in western Europe. Our objective was to assess whether selective forces acting on the Ixodes tick vector or the reservoir lizard, Psammodromus algirus, shaped its population structure.MethodsWe collected ticks feeding on P. algirus in the Iberian Peninsula and north Africa, and genetically characterized B. lusitaniae, the infected ticks, and the vertebrate host.ResultsThe goeBURST analysis on seven MLST B. lusitaniae genes identified two main clusters: one from central Europe and other from north Africa and Portugal (south of Tagus river), with some connections between the north Tagus populations in central Spain and north African ones. The Ixodes sp. nuclear gene trospA did not entirely correspond with the B. lusitaniae population structure. The P. algirus's phylogeny based on the ND4 mitochondrial gene also did not show lineage distinctions between north and south Tagus.ConclusionBoth the clustering of B. lusitaniae lineages from this region together with those of south Portugal and north Africa, and the presence of ticks belonging to different trospA clades, suggests Central Spain, a contact area between lineages of P. algirus, as pivotal in the phylogeography of the host, its ticks and Borrelia.
PB Elsevier
SN 1075-9964
YR 2026
FD 2026-02-12
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/136535
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/136535
LA eng
NO Norte, A. C., Carretero, M. A., da Silva, L. P., Moreno-Rueda, G., Garrido-Bautista, J., Zamora-Camacho, F. J., Comas, M., Gomez-Ramirez, F., Rato, C., Ramos, J. A., Rocha, A., Laghzaoui, E.-M., Megía-Palma, R., Civantos, E., Núncio, M. S., Lopes de Carvalho, I., Fingerle, V., & Margos, G. (2026). Vertebrate host or tick vector? Which is to blame for Borrelia lusitaniae population structure? Anaerobe, 97(103032). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anaerobe.2026.103032
NO Pablo Romero-Melero and Jesús Arca helped to capture lizards in Granada. Lorenzo Papaleo and Sofía Arce assisted in field work in Grândola. We thank the COST Action CA21170 “Prevention, anticipation and mitigation of tick-borne disease risk applying the DAMA protocol – PRAGMATICK” for promoting networking among researchers on tick and tick-borne diseases that contributed to share ideas on the topic of this manuscript. This work had the support of Portuguese national funds through Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I. P (FCT), under the projects UIDB/04292/2020 (https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDB/04292/2020) and UIDP/04292/2020 (https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDP/04292/2020) granted to MARE, and LA/P/0069/2020 (https://doi.org/10.54499/LA/P/0069/2020), granted to the Associate Laboratory ARNET, and transitory norm contracts (DL57/2016/CP1370/CT89) to ACN. The sampling in south Spain was economically supported by a grant of the Spanish Society for Ethology and Evolutionary Ecology, granted to MC. FJZC was partly supported by a Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación postdoctoral fellowship by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness. FCT supported LPS through the research contract CEECIND/02064/2017 (https://doi.org/10.54499/CEECIND/02064/2017/CP1423/CP1645/CT0009) and MAC through project 2022.03391. PTDC.
NO Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)
NO MARE (Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre)
NO ARNET (Aquatic Research Network)
NO Sociedad Española de Etología y Ecología Evolutiva (SEEEE)
NO Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 10 jun 2026