Figure 8.
Composition of chemical elements in tick salivary glands and cement. Chemical elements were characterized by SEM combined with EDS analysis in samples from tick salivary glands (SG) and cement. (A) Representation (%) of the chemical elements at different feeding stages (T1–T3). (B) Changes in the representation (%) of the chemical elements at different feeding stages (T1–T3). The composition of chemical elements was compared at different time points by One-way ANOVA test (https://www.socscistatistics.com/tests/anova/default2.aspx; p < 0.05, n = 2–4 biological replicates). (C) Characterization of α-Gal content in tick SG and cement protein extracts and in comparison with human promyelocytic leukemia HL60 cells (ATCC CCL-240) and pork (Sus scrofa) kidney as negative and positive controls, respectively. A calibration curve with 0.0–1.0 ng α-Gal and O.D. values at 450 nm was constructed using Microsoft Excel for Mac (v. 16.26) to convert ELISA reader values to α-Gal content per sample (R2 = 0.913). The results (average + S.D. of α-Gal/1 μg protein) were compared between pork kidney positive control, salivary gland or cement samples and HL60 cells negative control (black * p < 0.05, n = 3 biological replicates) and between salivary gland and cement samples at different time points (T1–T3) (red * p < 0.05, n = 3 biological replicates) by Student’s t-test with unequal variance. Variations in α-Gal levels at different time points (T1–T3) in both sialome and cementome were compared by one-way ANOVA test (https://www.socscistatistics.com/tests/anova/default2.aspx) (f and p values are shown, n = 3 biological replicates).