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Landscape Genetics Of The Gulf Coast Tick, Amblyomma Maculatum, Sara Simmons Benham
Landscape Genetics Of The Gulf Coast Tick, Amblyomma Maculatum, Sara Simmons Benham
Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations
Connectivity among populations helps to maintain genetic diversity, population stability, and resilience. The Gulf Coast tick, Amblyomma maculatum, is a vector of the pathogen Rickettsia parkeri. Persistence of tick populations with high rates of R. parkeri infection poses health risks to humans and animals. Mitochondrial haplotypes were characterized by sequencing a fragment of the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene. A comparative study of A. maculatum and Amblyomma americanum was conducted to identify similar and unique patterns between the species within the same region. Next, I compared A. maculatum sites across three different regions of the United States. This work …