The main importance of ticks resides in their ability to harbor and transmit microorganisms that cause disease to animals and humans. In addition to pathogens, ticks coexist and interact with symbionts, and commensal bacteria that together form an ecological unit, the tick holobiont. The holobiont is an additional organismal level on which natural selection operates. The components of the tick hologenome, composed of host and microbiome genomes, are complimentary. In agreement with this proposition, antibiotic treatment produces disturbance of the tick-microbiota homeostasis which in turn decreases tick fitness and affects tick-pathogen interactions. Accordingly, we hypothesized that immune targeting of key members of the bacterial community of the tick microbiome by host antibodies could cause microbial dysbiosis with consequences for tick physiology and vector competence. Anti-tick microbiota vaccines were recently introduced as a tool to target the microbiota of vector arthropods by immunizing the vertebrate hosts against live keystone bacteria or tick microbiota bacterial proteins. This tool can also be used to target tick endosymbionts. Decreased abundance of selected keystone bacteria and/or endosymbionts may reshape the structure of tick microbial communities in a predictable manner. This tool can be used to manipulate the tick microbiome against ticks and transmitted pathogens. In this opinion, we explore the possibilities of this methodology for the control of ticks and tick-borne diseases.

蜱的主要重要性在于它们能够携带和传播导致动物和人类疾病的微生物。除了病原体之外，蜱虫还与共生体和共生细菌共存并相互作用，它们共同形成了一个生态单元，即蜱虫全息生物。holobiont 是一个额外的有机体水平，自然选择在其上进行。蜱全基因组的组成部分由宿主和微生物组基因组组成，是互补的。与这一主张一致，抗生素治疗会扰乱蜱-微生物群的稳态，从而降低蜱的适应性并影响蜱-病原体的相互作用。因此，我们假设宿主抗体对蜱微生物群落关键成员的免疫靶向可能导致微生物失调，从而对蜱生理和载体能力产生影响。最近引入了抗蜱微生物群疫苗作为一种工具，通过使脊椎动物宿主免疫活基石细菌或蜱微生物群细菌蛋白质来靶向载体节肢动物的微生物群。该工具还可用于靶向蜱内共生体。选定的关键细菌和/或内共生体的丰度减少可能会以可预测的方式重塑蜱微生物群落的结构。该工具可用于操纵蜱微生物组对抗蜱和传播病原体。在这个观点中，我们探索了这种方法在控制蜱和蜱传疾病方面的可能性。