Differential gene expression between two developmental stages of the Gené\u27s organ in the cattle fever tick, \u3ci\u3eRhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus\u3c/i\u3e

The southern cattle fever tick (SCFT), Rhipicephalus microplus, is considered the most economically important ectoparasite of livestock worldwide and ranks sixth among the most pesticide resistant arthropods globally. This single-host hard tick is a vector of the infectious agents causing bovine babesiosis and anaplasmosis. The estimated impact of these SCFT-borne diseases on the livestock industry in the world is $7 billion annually. This project focuses on the Gené’s organ and addresses the need to identify novel targets that can serve as the basis for sustainable SCFT control strategies. Wax secreted by the Gené’s organ protects tick eggs from desiccation, bacterial and fungal infections, inorganic chemicals, and pesticides. We identified 1,513 new transcripts to add to the R. microplus genome database. A comparison of the two developmental stages of the Gene’s organ through quantitative RNA-seq analysis revealed 5,454 differentially expressed transcripts. The RNA-seq data was confirmed through RT-PCR