4 ms·
"We can also do microbiomes to figure out which possible beasties are found in the saliva. " Good luck with that.
by newdude116 6y ago
"We can also do microbiomes to figure out which possible beasties are found in the saliva. "
Good luck with that.
- hirenj 6y agoHa, yes okay maybe just from their secretions may be a tad optimistic. However, there are some papers out there about the associated microbiota, although I have no idea if they just mushed the whole tick up to get enough material.
- newdude116 6y agoTo give you an idea: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1279316/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1279316/ "We are grossly ignorant of bacterial life on earth. Environmental microbiologists estimate that less than 2% of bacteria can be cultured in the laboratory. "
- centimeter 6y agoIn the last 2-3 years, several sequencing labs have popped up that specialize in separating pathogen DNA from host DNA. Presumably someone like the UCSF next-gen diagnostics lab could grind up a bunch of ticks and isolate the different DNA sources. They've done similar things with other animal pathogens.
- newdude116 6y agoNot sure that it is so easy. May be easier to go mRNA fishing. Diversa did this. I think now part of BASF.