Although widely studied, the natural diversity of the hard tick is not well known. In this study, we collected 194 sequences from 67 species, covering 7 genera of hard tick. The 5′ region of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 region (586 bp) has been used to investigate intra- and inter-species variation and the phylogenetic tree of neighbor joining method has been used for assessment. As a result, by comparing the K2P-distance of intra- and interspecies, 30 samples (15.2%) shown that interspecies distance was larger than the minimum interspecfic distance. From the phylogenetic analysis, 86.8% (49) of the species were identified correctly at the genus level. On deeper analysis on these species suggested the possibility of presence cryptic species. Therefore, further work is required to delineate species boundaries and to develop a more complete understanding of hard tick diversity over larger scale.
Cytochromes c ; Cytochromes ; Electron Transport Complex IV ; Ixodidae ; Methods ; Trees

Objective:To observe the effects of rolling method massager on local tissue morphology, tissue and serum TNF-α and IL-1β in rabbits with skeletal muscle injury at different time points; To investigate the mechanism of temporal effect of rolling method action on skeletal muscle injury.Methods:Totally 72 New Zealand rabbits were divided into blank group, model group and rolling method treatment group according to random number table method, with 24 rabbits in each group. Rabbits in each group were divided into 1 d, 3 d, 5 d, 7 d, 9 d and 11 d subgroups according to the time point of injury, with 4 rabbits in each group. Blunt contusion was used to model the model group and the rolling method treatment group. Each subgroup of the rolling method treatment group was subjected to rolling method intervention for 3 d, using a homemade rolling method massager, 2 times/d, 3 min/time. At 24 h after the completion of the intervention, the histomorphological changes were observed by HE staining, and the TNF-α and IL-1β contents in serum and damaged skeletal muscle tissues were detected by ELISA.Results:Compared with the blank group, the inflammatory cell infiltration in the model group was obvious, edema was severe, and myofibers were broken; the inflammatory cell infiltration in the 1 d rolling method treatment group was intensified, myocytes were apoptotic, and myofibers were broken and necrosed more seriously; the inflammation in the 7 d rolling method treatment group was obviously improved with the best effect, and the difference with normal healthy muscle tissue was smaller. After modeling, TNF-α and IL-1β levels in skeletal muscle tissues and serum TNF-α levels were higher in the 3 d model group than in the 1 d model group ( P<0.05). Compared with the blank group, TNF-α and IL-1β levels in skeletal muscle tissues and serum increased in each subgroup of the model group and each subgroup of the rolling method treatment group ( P<0.01); Compared with the 1 d model group, TNF-α and IL-1β levels in skeletal muscle tissues and serum TNF-α levels increased in the 1 d rolling method treatment group. The levels of TNF-α and IL-1β in the 3 d, 5 d, 7 d, 9 d and 11 d rolling method treatment group were lower than those in the model group subgroup ( P<0.05). TNF-α and IL-1β levels in skeletal muscle tissues and serum TNF-α levels were higher in the 1 d, 3 d and 5 d rolling method treatment group than in the 7 d rolling method treatment group ( P<0.05). TNF-α levels in skeletal muscle tissues were higher in the 1 d and 3 d rolling method treatment group than in the 7 d rolling method treatment group ( P<0.05). Conclusion:The inflammatory factors in the rolling treated group were significantly higher at 1 d after skeletal muscle injury, indicating that treatment with the rolling method was inappropriate at this time; seven days after injury, the application of rolling method can reduce the inflammatory effect, accelerate the repair of skeletal muscle, and improve the quality of functional recovery.

Cysticercosis,caused by the larval stage of the tapeworm Taenia pisiformis,known as Cysticercus pisiformis,is a parasitic ailment affecting lagomorphs,particularly domestic rabbits,posing a threat to the rabbit industry and the safety of rabbit meat products.This study aims to i-dentify the distribution of the TPO18 antigen in Cysticercus pisiformis and Taenia pisiformis and establish an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA)for detecting antibodies against rabbit cysticercosis.The research involved the prokaryotic expression of the 18 kDa antigen of rabbit Cysticercus pisiformis and the isolation of soluble TPO18 protein post-purification.Immuni-zing rabbits with the TPO18 protein resulted in the production of polyclonal antibodies with a titer of up to 1∶51 200.Western blot analysis validated the antigenicity of the polyclonal antibodies a-gainst total proteins from rabbit Cysticercus pisiformis,Taenia pisiformis and the recombinant TPO18 protein.Immunohistochemistry revealed the distribution of the TPO18 antigen in rabbit Cysticercus pisiformis and Taenia pisiform is,indicating the effective reactivity of the polyclonal antibodies with total proteins from both parasites and the recombinant TPO18 protein.TPO18 an-tigen in rabbit Cysticercus pisiformis predominantly localized in the germinal layer and the paren-chyma,while in Taenia pisiformis,it was mainly present in the suckers,sucker peripheries,collec-ting duct upper cells,and parenchyma.An indirect ELISA based on the TPO18 antigen was devel-oped using the recombinant antigen,and its technical parameters were optimized.The optimized ELISA conditions included a serum dilution of 1∶100,antigen coating concentration of 5 mg/L,coating for 1 h at 37 ℃ followed by overnight incubation at 4 ℃,blocking with 1％BSA for 60 min at 37 ℃,serum reaction for 60 min,secondary antibody dilution at 1∶1 000,secondary antibody incubation for 60 min,substrate reacting for 15 min,with a cutoff value of 0.295.Sensitivity,speci-ficity,and repeatability tests of the ELISA demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity without cross-reactivity with positive sera of rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus,Hepatic coccidiosis,Eimer-ia stiedae,or Toxoplasma gondii.The intra-and inter-assay coefficients of variation were both less than 7％,indicating excellent repeatability.Application of this ELISA,compared to postmortem ex-amination,on 86 clinical serum samples showed a concordance rate of 97.7％.In conclusion,this study successfully established an indirect ELISA for detecting antibodies against rabbit Cysticercus pisiformis,presenting a novel monitoring approach for assessing rabbit infections with Cysticer-cus pisiformis.

This study aims to investigate the function of lmo2363 gene in stress resistance of Liste-ria monocytogenes strain LM83-1.In this study,the lmo2363 gene deletion strain and complement-ation strain of Listeria monocytogenes were constructed using overlapping extended PCR and ho-mologous recombination techniques,and the growth ability,stress survival rate and biofilm forma-tion ability of wild,deletion strain and complementation strain were compared under different stress environments.lmo2363 gene deletion strain and complementation strain of Listeria monocy-togenes were successfully constructed in this experiment.The growth curves showed that the growth capacity of the deletion strain was weaker than the wild strain LM83-1 under 4 ℃,7％NaCl,10％NaCl,3.5％ethanol,4.0％ethanol and pH5 stress(P＜0.001).The results of stress survival test showed that the survival rate of the deletion strain was significantly lower than the wild strain after 1 h treatment with pH3 and 10 mmol/L H2 O2 stress(P＜0.010).The biofilm forming ability of the deletion strain was decreased compared with that of the wild strain(P＜0.050).This study confirmed that lmo2363 gene mediated the adaptation of LM to low temperature,high osmotic pressure,ethanol and acid stress environment and affected the formation of LM bio-film.This study laid a foundation for further exploring the function of lmo2363 gene in the stress resistance process of Listeria monocytogenes.