Figure 1
Overview of the transcriptional profile of Ornithodoros hermsi immature stages across different feeding timepoints. (a) Ticks were fed on neonate mice until blood repletion. Total RNA was isolated from the whole body of unfed (UF) and fed ticks at 6 h (FED6h), 12 h (FED12h), 24 h (FED24h), and 5 days (FED5d) post-blood feeding. (b) Multidimensional scaling (MDS) plots depict transcripts with transcripts per million (TPM) values ≥ 5 across all replicates within each triplicate. Groups are sorted based on transcriptional profiles, revealing three clusters: UF (red), early-fed (FED6h, FED12h, FED24h, blueish), and late-fed (FED5d, dark grey). (c) Heatmap plots comparing the normalized abundance of transcripts between feeding groups. Groups were clustered based on relative abundance (TPM ≥ 5) and transformed into Z-score. Each column represents the Z-score values for each replicate. Lines represent transcripts expressed by each replicate. Clades are color-coded to correspond to the MDS clusters.
