Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27414806›Full record

ArticlePLoS pathogens2016

Vectors as Epidemiological Sentinels: Patterns of Within-Tick Borrelia burgdorferi Diversity.

Katharine S Walter, Giovanna Carpi, Benjamin R Evans, Adalgisa Caccone, Maria A Diuk-Wasser

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PLoS pathogens, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
25citing papers in PubMed
4.9field-weighted citation impact, top 5% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

25 citing papers in PubMed, 49 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Differential Impact of Simultaneous or Sequential Coinfections WithInternational journal of microbiology · 2025
    Article
  4. Tick-to-host transmission differs betweenMicrobiology spectrum · 2023
    Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. The environment, the tick, and the pathogen - It is an ensemble.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2022
    Review
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Ecological and evolutionary perspectives on tick-borne pathogen co-infections.Current research in parasitology & vector-borne diseases · 2021
    Review
  12. Evolutionary Genetics ofCurrent issues in molecular biology · 2021
    Review
  13. Evolutionary ecology of Lyme Borrelia.Infection, genetics and evolution : journal of molecular epidemiology and evolutionary genetics in infectious diseases · 2020
    Review
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Competition Between Strains ofFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2019
    Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Katharine S WalterDepartment of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America.
Giovanna CarpiDepartment of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America.
Benjamin R EvansDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America.
Adalgisa CacconeDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America.
Maria A Diuk-WasserDepartment of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America.
Yale University · USColumbia University · US

Funding

Yale Clinical and Translational Science Award (U Component)UL1TR001863 · NCATS · YALE UNIVERSITY · PI John H. Krystal, LUCILA OHNO-MACHADO · 2016 to 2026
$102.9M
Babesiosis Emergence in the United StatesR01GM105246 · NIGMS · YALE UNIVERSITY · PI DIUK-WASSER, MARIA ANA · 2012 to 2016
$2.0M
Probing the natural genomic diversity of Babesia microtiR21AI112938 · NIAID · YALE UNIVERSITY · PI BEN MAMOUN, CHOUKRI, CACCONE, ADALGISA · 2015 to 2016
$458k
Population genomics of Borrelia burgdorferi, the tick-borne agent of Lyme diseaseF31AI118233 · NIAID · YALE UNIVERSITY · PI WALTER, KATHARINE SASSANDRA · 2016 to 2017
$50k
NCATS NIH HHS UL1 TR001863NIAID NIH HHS F31 AI118233NIAID NIH HHS R21 AI112938NIGMS NIH HHS R01 GM105246
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Hosts including humans, other vertebrates, and arthropods, are frequently infected with heterogeneous populations of pathogens. Within-host pathogen diversity has major implications for human health, epidemiology, and pathogen evolution. However, pathogen diversity within-hosts is difficult to characterize and little is known about the levels and sources of within-host diversity maintained in natural populations of disease vectors. Here, we examine genomic variation of the Lyme disease bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb), in 98 individual field-collected tick vectors as a model for study of within-host processes. Deep population sequencing reveals extensive and previously undocumented levels of Bb variation: the majority (~70%) of ticks harbor mixed strain infections, which we define as levels Bb diversity pre-existing in a diverse inoculum. Within-tick diversity is thus a sample of the variation present within vertebrate hosts. Within individual ticks, we detect signatures of positive selection. Genes most commonly under positive selection across ticks include those involved in dissemination in vertebrate hosts and evasion of the vertebrate immune complement. By focusing on tick-borne Bb, we show that vectors can serve as epidemiological and evolutionary sentinels: within-vector pathogen diversity can be a useful and unbiased way to survey circulating pathogen diversity and identify evolutionary processes occurring in natural transmission cycles.

Indexed as

AnimalsBorrelia burgdorferiGenetic VariationInsect VectorsIxodesLyme Disease

Identifiers

PMID27414806
PMCPMC4944968
OpenAlexW2460823679

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.