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Conference Agenda

Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).

Daily Overview

Session

CP21: Cells, Molecules & Genes 4 - 15 min talks
Location: Lecture Theatre 1
Session Chair: Andrew Walker, The University of Queensland
Session Chair: Natasha Sharma, The University of Melbourne

Presentation 1

The chromosome-scale assembly of the Australian Paralysis Tick, Ixodes holocyclus

Amrita Vijay¹, Alexander Gofton², Quentin Gouil³, Shilpa Kapoor⁴, Swapnil Tichkule^1,5, Balu Balan¹, Louise Baker¹, Stefano Gaiarsa⁶, Clare A Anstead⁴, Ala Tabor⁷, Nathan Lo⁸, Stephen Barker⁹, Jan Riemer¹⁰, Fabrizia Stavru¹¹, Davide Sassera^12,13, Peter Czabotar¹, Tony Papenfuss¹, Aaron Jex^1,4

1: Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Department of Medical Biology, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; 2: Zoonotic & Arboviral pathogens, Health & Biosecurity, CSIRO, Canberra, Australia; 3: Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute, Australia; 4: Department of Veterinary Biosciences, Melbourne Veterinary School, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; 5: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, USA; 6: Microbiology and Virology unit at Policlinico San Matteo, Fondazione IRCCS, Pavia, Province of Pavia, Italy; 7: The University of Queensland, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture & Food Innovation, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia; 8: School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, New South Wales; 9: School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia; 10: Department for Chemistry, Institute for Biochemistry, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany; 11: Deceased:Fabrizia Stavru; 12: Department of Biology and Biotechnology, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy; 13: Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia, Italy

Ixodes holocyclus (the Australian eastern paralysis tick) is a medically and veterinary important ectoparasite that produces potent neurotoxins, holocyclotoxins, causing rapidly ascending flaccid paralysis in companion animals, livestock and humans, often fatally. Despite its importance, the molecular basis of toxin production, host specificity and survival remains poorly understood because genomic and transcriptomic resources are limited. We generated the first chromosomal-scale genome for I. holocyclus using Oxford Nanopore long reads, Illumina short reads and Hi-C, and annotated genes with a hybrid de novo transcriptome, resolving alternative splicing with long- and short-read alignments. We scanned UTRs and upstream regions of complete genes for conserved regulatory motifs, including putative promoters. Comparative genomics, including synteny and phylogenomic placement, was performed, and ticks from 32 eastern Australian sites were sequenced to examine genomic diversity and its links to ecological adaptation and vector capacity. The 1.9 Gb assembly contains 13 chromosome-level scaffolds, 66% repetitive elements and 93.3% BUSCO completeness. Annotation identified a high-confidence gene set including protein-coding genes. Synteny with I. scapularis and I. ricinus revealed conserved supergene blocks. Together, these resources advance tick biology and support targeted control strategies against tick-borne diseases.