Language
English
Publication Date
7-9-2025
Journal
G3
DOI
10.1093/g3journal/jkaf103
PMID
40512126
PMCID
PMC12239604
PubMedCentral® Posted Date
6-13-2025
PubMedCentral® Full Text Version
Post-print
Abstract
The soft tick family Argasidae contains vectors of medical and veterinary importance, but few molecular resources are available compared to hard ticks (Ixodidae). One example is Ornithodoros turicata, a recognized vector of Borrelia turicatae, causal agent of human relapsing fever, and a putative vector of African swine fever virus. To address the current lack of molecular resources for the Argasidae, we generated a chromosome-level genome assembly for O. turicata using PacBio sequencing in conjunction with an Illumina Hi-C library. The resulting reference genome has a total of 1.1 Gb in length and was assembled into 10 chromosomes and 368 unplaced scaffolds, an N50 of 2.7 Mb, and a QV score of 43.58. The orthology analysis indicated high-quality with a 97.8% BUSCO completeness score and 36,149 annotated genes. 33% of the genome was identified as repeats and masked. The generation of the first soft tick reference genome establishes a basis for future studies to utilize genomic tools to support vector-borne disease management.
Keywords
Animals, Ornithodoros, Relapsing Fever, Molecular Sequence Annotation, Genomics, Genome, Whole Genome Sequencing, Borrelia, High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing, reference genome, soft tick, relapsing fever tick, genome assembly
Published Open-Access
yes
Recommended Citation
Tietjen, Mackenzie; Stahlke, Amanda R; Luecke, David; et al., "Genome Report: Whole-Genome Assembly of the Relapsing Fever Tick Ornithodoros turicata Dugès (Acari: Argasidae)" (2025). Faculty and Staff Publications. 5872.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/baylor_docs/5872