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.