Tick Haller’s Organ Project
Ticks transmit many (emerging) diseases, including Lyme disease. How ticks find their hosts is an important step in the disease cycle. Yet the very sensory organ that ticks use to find their hosts, the Haller’s organ, is woefully understudied. By using modern molecular and physiological studies, together with the latest imaging techniques, our lab sheds new light on this crucial part of tick biology.
Collaborators
- Dr. Brian Allan – Department of Entomology – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Dr. Zain Syed – Department of Entomology – University of Kentucky
Publications
- Morphometric Analysis of Chemoreception Organ in Male and Female Ticks (Acari: Ixodidae). Tanya Josek, Brian F. Allan and Marianne Alleyne*. Journal of Medical Entomology V55(3), 2018, pp. 547-552. DOI: 10.1093/jme/tjx232
- A Foreleg Transcriptome For Ixodes scapularis Ticks: Candidates For Chemoreceptors And Binding Proteins That Might Be Expressed In The Sensory Haller’s Organ. Tanya Josek, Kimberly K. O. Walden, Brian F. Allan, Marianne Alleyne and Hugh M. Robertson*. Ticks And Tick-Borne Diseases V9(5), 2018, 1317-1327. DOI: 10.1016/j.ttbdis.2018.05.013