Table 1.

A brief overview of tick microbiomes assessed in the last ten years.^a

Genus/species & Reference cited	Target gene	Approach	Geographic location of ticks	Developmental stage	Tissue assessed	Ref
Ixodes ricinus	16S	Sanger sequencing of DGGE fragments	Austria	Adults	Whole ticks	[60]
Ixodes scapularis	16S	Sanger sequencing of clones	USA	Nymphs	Whole ticks	[47]
Ixodes scapularis	16S	Sanger sequencing, TGGE	USA	Adult and nymphs	Whole ticks	[65]
Ixodes ricinus	16S	Sanger sequencing of clones	Netherlands	Nymphs	Whole ticks	[67]
Amblyomma americanum	16S	Sanger sequencing of clones	USA	Adults, larvae and eggs	Whole ticks	[44]
Rhipiciphalus microplus	16S	454 pyrosequencing	USA	Adults	Whole ticks, midguts, ovaries eggs	[57]
Ixodes ricinus	16S	454 pyrosequencing	Italy	Nymphs and adults	Whole ticks	[66]
Amblyomma americanum	16S	Ion torrent	USA	Nymphs and adults	Whole ticks	[70]
Amblyomma americanum	16S	454 pyrosequencing	USA	Adults and nymphs	Whole ticks	[63]
Amblyomma, Ixodes, Haemaphysalisb	Whole genome	454 pyrosequencing	Japan Netherlands;	Adults and nymphs	Whole ticks	[55]
Ixodes ricinus	Whole transcriptome	Illumina	France	Nymphs	Whole ticks	[68]
Ixodes scapularis	16S	454 pyrosequencing	USA	Larvae, and nymphs	Whole ticks and guts	[58]
Ixodes Haemaphysalisb	16S	454 pyrosequencing	Japan	Adults	Salivary glands	[59]
Amblyomma maculatum	16S	454 pyrosequencing	USA	Adult ticks	Guts, salivary glands, and saliva	[40]
Ixodes persulcatus	16S	Illumina sequencing	China	Adult ticks	Flat and fed whole ticks	[72]

^aStudies focused on specific bacterial genera in ticks are not listed here.

^bWhen several tick species were assessed in a single study, only the tick genus is listed.