Ticks are obligate hematophagous ectoparasites as well as mechanical and biological vectors of a wide variety of microbial pathogens. To date, 19 tick-borne diseases have been reported from Turkey. In this study, ticks collected from Aydın, İzmir and Şanlıurfa provinces of Turkey were identified using morphological and molecular methods. After the presence of bacterial DNA was checked, Rickettsia spp. and Francisella tularensis were investigated in bacterial DNA-positive tick specimens by PCR. Furthermore, amplicons belonging to tick specimens and positive bacterial samples were sequenced and processed for BLAST, alignment and phylogenetic analysis. As a result, seven tick species were identified: Rhipicephalus sanguineus, Rh. bursa, Rh. turanicus, Hyalomma marginatum, Hy. aegyptium, Hy. anatolicum and Haemaphysalis erinacei. Fifty-five tick specimens tested positive for bacterial DNA and among them, rickettsial DNA was found in five ticks (infection rate = 9.1%) belonging to Hy. marginatum, Hy. aegyptium, Rh. bursa and Rh. turanicus. Of the five Rickettsia-positive ticks, three contained Rickettsia aeschlimannii, one Ri. massiliae and one an unidentified Rickettsia sp. No Francisella tularensis DNA was detected. Sequence analysis of the ompB gene indicated two novel single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in two different Ri. aeschlimannii strains and two novel SNPs as well as a novel insertion (GACGGT) were found in Rickettsia sp. This study indicated the presence of polymorphic Rickettsia species in ticks from Turkey.

中文翻译：

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立克次体的分子研究。和来自土耳其三个省的壁虱中的弗朗西斯菌tularensis。

cks虫是专性的嗜血性体外寄生虫，也是多种微生物病原体的机械和生物学载体。迄今为止，土耳其已报告了19种tick传播疾病。在这项研究中，使用形态学和分子学方法鉴定了从土耳其的艾登，伊兹密尔和扬卢尔法省收集的tick。检查细菌DNA的存在后，立克次体属。通过PCR对细菌DNA阳性tick标本中的Tus和Tularensis进行了研究。此外，对属于壁虱标本和阳性细菌样品的扩增子进行了测序，并进行了BLAST，比对和系统发育分析。结果，鉴定出七个tick种：Rhipicephalus sanguineus，Rh。囊，Rh。图兰，璃眼蜱marginatum，海兰。aegyptium，海兰。anatolicum和血erinacei。五十五只tick虫样本的细菌DNA检测呈阳性，其中，在属于Hy的五只s虫中发现了立克次体DNA（感染率= 9.1％）。marginatum，海兰。aegyptium，铑。布尔萨和Rh turanicus。在五个立克次体阳性tick中，三个包含里氏立克次体，一个Ri。Massiliae和一个身份不明的立克次体sp。没有土拉弗朗西斯菌检测到DNA。ompB基因的序列分析表明在两个不同的Ri中有两个新的单核苷酸多态性（SNP）。aeschlimannii菌株和两个新SNP以及一种新型的插入（GACGGT）中发现立克次氏体属。这项研究表明土耳其Turkey中存在多态立克次体物种。