Bead Mill Homogenization and chemagic™ 360 Automated DNA Extraction Workflow for High-Definition PCR Detection of Tick-Borne Pathogens

Next to mosquitos, ticks are considered the most dangerous arthropod vectors worldwide for the transmission of zoonotic infections [1]. Due to the blood meal processes in their life cycle, each tick is given numerous opportunities to pick up and spread new pathogens between their hosts. In addition to carrying numerous pathogens known to cause disease in humans and livestock, environmental factors are leading to expanding habitats of many tick species, resulting in previously unseen pathogens making their way into new environments via tick vectors [2].

In the following application note,  we demonstrate the utility of OMNI Bead Ruptor Elite™ Bead Mill Homogenizer in combination with the chemagic™ 360 instrument and the HDPCR™ TBP Panel for a reliable and fast workflow to study and screen tick populations while maintaining sensitivity and specificity.

1. Parola, P., & Raoult, D. (2001). Ticks and tick-borne bacterial diseases in humans: an emerging infectious threat. Clinical infectious diseases, 32(6), 897-928.
2. Menchaca, A. C., Visi, D. K., Strey, O. F., Teel, P. D., Kalinowski, K., Allen, M. S., & Williamson, P. C. (2013). Preliminary assessment of microbiome changes following blood-feeding and survivorship in the Amblyomma americanum nymph-to-adult transition using semiconductor sequencing. PloS one, 8(6), e67129.