Targeted screen of aquatic and terrestrial arthropods
A targeted Rickettsia screen was undertaken as an adjunct to the BOLD screen to increase our understanding of Rickettsia ecology. Overall, 1,612 individuals from 169 species, including both terrestrial (DNA templates derived from European material, mostly from Duron et al., 2008) and aquatic invertebrates (largely acquired from the UK between 2016-2018), were screened. mtDNA COI amplification was conducted as a control for DNA quality. To investigate symbiont infection status, rickettsial-specific primers based on gltA and 16S rRNAgenes were used for conventional PCR screening (Pilgrim et al., 2017), with Sanger sequences obtained from at least one specimen perRickettsia positive species to identify any misamplification false positives. Subsequently, the number of species containing at least one Torix Rickettsia positive individual were compared between terrestrial and aquatic environments using the Fisher’s Exact test. Additionally, newly identified hosts of interest from BOLD and targeted screens were also placed phylogenetically (see sections above) before being mapped by lifestyle and diet.