The blood-sucking tick Ixodes hexagonus reveals dietary stable isotope signatures of mammalian hosts
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Ticks are obligate haematophagous ('blood-sucking') ectoparasites that are capable of retaining host dietary traces post-moult, providing an opportunity to investigate parasite-host interactions and explore their potential as non-invasive subsampling techniques. However, research on the preservation of biochemical host signatures within whole engorged parasites remains limited. Here, we examine stable isotope ratios of nitrogen (δ15N) and carbon (δ13C) across different tick tissues (exoskeleton vs. blood meal) and between whole ticks and one of their hosts, the European polecat Mustela putorius. Additionally, carbon and nitrogen weight percentages (wt%) are assessed to explore potential biochemical changes linked to blood meal digestion. Our findings showed that the isotopic composition of tick exoskeleton and blood meal differed significantly, with exoskeletons potentially reflecting a previous host. Whole engorged ticks showed a close δ15N relationship to their host, consistent with that of trophic enrichment, while the observed δ13C values were more variable. These findings enhance our understanding of how haematophagous parasites preserve host dietary signatures and, with further research, could support their use as a valuable alternative to invasive sampling methods, particularly when destructive sampling is not feasible.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".