This dataset was collected over two different experiments (see manuscript https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.05.09.539061 for more details). The subfile "ReproductionTraits" contains the data issued from monitoring of life history traits in arthropods treated or not with antibiotics and/or B vitamins : Antibiotics and B vitamins were added in a blood meal of adult female ticks Ornithodoros moubata. Six different treatment conditions were tested: No antibiotic with or without B vitamins; Gentamycin with or without B vitamins; Rifampicin with or without B vitamins. Concentrations were: gentamycin 10 µg.mL-1, rifampicin 10 µg.mL-1, and B vitamins: a mix of biotin 1 µg.mL-1, folic acid 30 µg.mL-1, riboflavin 20 µg.mL-1. Antibiotics and B vitamins were replaced by the same volumes of Milli-Q water for negative controls (No antibiotics / No vitamins). After blood feeding with treatments and being mated with males, the females were monitored during two periods of 50 days. We registered survival and traits associated with reproduction: laying success, laying date, number of eggs laid (standardized with the female tick weight as big ticks tend to lay more eggs), egg mass, date of hatching, hatching rate, date of molting into first nymphal stage, and molting rate. The data obtained are made available here as well as the R script used for statistical analyses. The subfile "qPCR" contains the data issued from qPCR performed on arthropods treated or not with antibiotics and/or B vitamins : First nymph ticks Ornithodoros moubata received a bloodmeal treated with antibiotics and/or B vitamins with the same protocol as presented above. Nymphs were then sampled at day 0 (before blood meal), day 1, day 3, day 5, day 10, day 15 and day 30 after blood meal and crushed for DNA extraction. Quantitative PCRs were then performed on the extracted DNA to amplify target genes: RpoB gene marker of the presence of Francisella; GltA gene marker of the presence of Rickettsia; Actin gene of Ornithodoros moubata to assess the success of the extraction and qPCR, and to standardize for the tick size. Samples with a qPCR cycle threshold (Ct) beyond 38 were considered as negative. For positive samples, Cts were converted into concentrations from the standard curves. Ratio of the concentration of the gene of interest (GltA or RpoB) divided by the concentration of the actin gene was calculated to standardize for the tick size. The data obtained and conversion performed are made available here as well as the R script used for statistical analyses.

Over the past ten years, many studies demonstrated the crucial role of the tick microbiome in tick biology. The soft tick Ornithodoros moubata is a hematophagous ectoparasite of Suidae particularly known to transmit the African swine fever virus. Its bacterial microbiota is characterized by a high prevalence of Francisella-like and Rickettsia endosymbionts. The present study aims to better understand the potential influence of the microbiota on the reproductive fitness of O. moubata. A total of 132 adult female ticks were treated using gentamycin or rifampicin added to the blood meal. Half of the ticks also received a supplementation with B vitamins to address the nutritional role of endosymbionts. Over two periods of 50 days, several traits related to reproductive fitness were monitored to investigate the importance of Francisella and Rickettsia for those traits. It appeared that most of the considered reproductive parameters were not affected. However, antibiotic treatments induced an increase in the tick survival indicating a potential fitness cost of harboring endosymbionts for ticks during the reproduction period. Similarly, 366 first-stage nymphs of Ornithodoros moubata were exposed to the same treatments for molecular quantification of both endosymbionts. Results from qPCR suggested that treatments produced a bacteriostatic effect on endosymbionts without fully eliminating Francisella or Rickettsia.

Data files are in .csv format with semicolon as separators, they can be visualized using any software capable of handling .csv files (Excel, LibreOffice Calc, TextPad etc…). R Scripts require R version 4.2.3 (2023-03-15) to be launched and can be used easily with RStudio.Funding provided by: National Institute of Food and AgricultureCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100005825Award Number: