Ticks are vectors of pathogens affecting human and animal health worldwide. Nevertheless, the ecological and evolutionary interactions between ticks, hosts, and pathogens are largely unknown. Here, we integrated a framework to evaluate the associations of the tick Ixodes ricinus with its hosts and environmental niches that impact pathogen circulation. The analysis of tick-hosts association suggested that mammals and lizards were the ancestral hosts of this tick species, and that a leap to Aves occurred around 120 M years ago. The signature of the environmental variables over the host's phylogeny revealed the existence of two clades of vertebrates diverging along a temperature and vegetation split. This is a robust proof that the tick probably experienced a colonization of new niches by adapting to a large set of new hosts, Aves. Interestingly, the colonization of Aves as hosts did not increase significantly the ecological niche of I. ricinus, but remarkably Aves are super-spreaders of pathogens. The disparate contribution of Aves to the tick-host-pathogen networks revealed that I. ricinus evolved to maximize habitat overlap with some hosts that are super-spreaders of pathogens. These results supported the hypothesis that large host networks are not a requirement of tick survival but pathogen circulation. The biological cost of tick adaptation to non-optimal environmental conditions might be balanced by molecular mechanisms triggered by the pathogens that we have only begun to understand.

• Klíčová slova
• communities, networks, tick-borne pathogens, ticks,
• MeSH
• biologická adaptace MeSH
• druhová specificita MeSH
• ekologie metody   MeSH
• interakce hostitele a patogenu MeSH
• ještěři parazitologie   MeSH
• klíšťata mikrobiologie   parazitologie   fyziologie   MeSH
• klíště klasifikace   parazitologie   fyziologie   MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• nemoci přenášené klíšťaty parazitologie   přenos   MeSH
• obratlovci klasifikace   parazitologie   MeSH
• ptáci klasifikace   parazitologie   MeSH
• savci klasifikace   parazitologie   MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH