Table 1.
Features of Sarcoptes scabiei draft genome.
Fig 1.
Characteristics of coding sequences, exons and introns.
Density diagrams–showing the distribution of data–were used to compare coding sequences, exons and introns for the gene models of the mite species Sarcoptes scabiei var. suis (black), Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (blue), Psoroptes ovis (red), Tetranychus urticae (green) and Sarcoptes scabiei var. canis (yellow). The NCBI accession identifiers for the genomes of the taxa included here are: WVUK01000000, GCF_001901225.1, GCA_002943765.1, GCF_000239435.1 and GCA_000828355.1, respectively.
Fig 2.
Comparison of orthologous proteins among selected mite species.
VENN diagram showing numbers of homologous groups of proteins among Sarcoptes scabiei var. suis, Sarcoptes scabiei var. canis, Psoroptes ovis, Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus and Tetranychus urticae. Protein-coding genes of S. scabiei var. suis are indicated in parentheses. NCBI accession identifiers for the genomes of the taxa included here are: WVUK01000000, GCA_000828355.1, GCA_002943765.1, GCF_001901225.1 and GCF_000239435.1, respectively.
Fig 3.
Genetic relationships of selected species of mites.
The phylogenetic tree was constructed using data for shared single-copy orthologous protein sequences (n = 2,314) representing Sarcoptes scabiei var. suis, Sarcoptes scabiei var. canis, Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (dust mite), Psoroptes ovis (sheep mite), Tetranychus urticae (spider mite) and Metaseiulus occidentalis (predatory mite). All nodes had absolute support values (posterior probability = 1 and bootstrap support = 100%) for both the Bayesian and maximum likelihood inference methods.
Fig 4.
Proposed RNA interference machinery of Sarcoptes scabiei.
Proteins PASHA and DROSHA are involved in the endogenous synthesis of miRNA. Endogenous or exogenous miRNA, dsRNA and viral siRNA are recognised and diced by endoribonucleases DCR1 or DCR2, mediated by proteins LOQS or R2D2, and transferred to argonaut protein (AGO1 or AGO2), forming the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). The RISC facilitates targeting specific transcripts, leading to mRNA cleavage and antiviral defence via ATP-dependent RNA helicase (RM62). The silencing effect can be disseminated to other cells via a key component RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp); miRNA, dsRNA and virus-derived siRNA pathways are indicated in orange, blue and green, respectively. Silencing and dissemination modules are indicated in yellow.