DNA methylation at the fifth position of cytosine (5mC) and at the sixth position of adenine (6 mA) plays an important role in the regulation of the gene expression and, in eukaryotes, is essential for normal development. For Ixodes ricinus, the most common European arthropod vector of human and animal pathogens, the DNA methylation profile and the role of DNA methylation in tick development are still under discussion. Our goal was to analyze the status of I. ricinus DNA methylation at different life stages and identify enzymes that produce this type of DNA modification. We found that 5mC and 6mA are present in I. ricinus genomic DNA at all life stages. In the transcriptome of I. ricinus, we identified the sequences of the putative IrDNMT1, IrDNMT3, and IrDAMT enzymes, and bioinformatic analysis and three-dimensional modeling predicted their DNA methylation activity. This confirms that I. ricinus possesses a complete DNA methylation toolkit. Our results suggest that DNA methylation is important for the physiology and transstadial development of ticks.

在胞嘧啶的第五个位置（5mC）和腺嘌呤的第六个位置（6 mA）的DNA甲基化在调节基因表达中起重要作用，并且在真核生物中，对于正常发育至关重要。对于欧洲人和动物病原体最常见的节肢动物媒介蓖麻（Ixodes ricinus），DNA甲基化概况和DNA甲基化在壁虱发育中的作用仍在讨论中。我们的目标是分析不同生命阶段蓖麻毒素DNA甲基化的状态，并鉴定产生这种类型DNA修饰的酶。我们发现，5mC和pU6毫安存在于一蓖麻在所有生命阶段的基因组DNA。在蓖麻毒素的转录组中，我们确定了推定的IrDNMT1，IrDNMT3和IrDAMT酶的序列，并且生物信息学分析和三维建模预测了它们的DNA甲基化活性。这证实了蓖麻毒素拥有完整的DNA甲基化工具包。我们的结果表明，DNA甲基化对于of的生理和跨行发育很重要。