Researchers unravel how ticks protect themselves from Lyme bacteria and other microbes
Tuesday, February 14, 2017 - 12:01
in Biology & Nature
For hundreds of millions of years, ticks have survived on Earth by sucking blood from their victims for days, often leaving behind terrible diseases as a thank-you note. But no one has ever looked at why ticks, themselves, are able to survive while harboring bacteria, viruses and parasites. Now, for the first time, scientists have decoded how the ingenious tick immune system fights a myriad of microbes.