High levels of alpha-gal with large variation in the salivary glands of lone star ticks fed on human blood

Figures

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  Figure 1. Alpha-Gal levels in SG ticks fed on different sources. (A) OKL ticks fed on bovine blood and human blood. (B) NCL ticks fed on artificial feeding system or directly on animal hosts. Alphabet assignment for significance was conducted using an ANOVA test (parametric and non-parametric, Kruskal–Wallis) at p < 0.05. The ANOVA multiple comparisons tests were conducted within sex group (males in blue, females in magenta). Fisher’s exact test was conducted by comparing the frequency of individuals outside the 95% normal distribution cutoff for the OKL-bovine-fed group (301.2 pmol/tick for the males and 317.6 pmol for the females). Figure was created with GraphPad Prism 9 and MindtheGraph.com (accessed on November 2023).

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  Figure 2. Alpha-Gal levels in SG of ticks fed on human blood by tick location and during feeding. (A) Field collected: KS1, KS2, MO, OKF, and laboratory-reared: NCL, and OKL, and table depicting statistical significance in the Kruskal–Wallis one-way-ANOVA multiple comparisons test and the Fisher’s exact test (significance p = 0.05). (B) Map of the Midwest and Southeast regions of the United States indicating tick geographical locations used in this study, previous reports of alpha-gal IgE-positive persons and AGS cases12,32, and A. americanum distribution. The map was constructed manually using previously published data12,32,33 using Adobe Inc., 2019. Adobe Illustrator (available at https://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator.html) and edited in Adobe Fresco (available at https://www.adobe.com/products/fresco.html).

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  Figure 3. Alpha-gal levels in SG of ticks fed on human blood during feeding. Alpha-gal levels of Lab-reared tick strains during the feeding stage, stages were classified according to feeding time, weight, and size, with a schematic representation of the increase in size during the course of feeding. The alphabets show significant differences at p = 0.05 in the Kruskal–Wallis one-way-ANOVA test. Tick illustrations were created in Adobe Fresco (available at https://www.adobe.com/products/fresco.html).