Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 12, 2025

Tick Microbiome Characterization by Next-Generation 16S rRNA Amplicon Sequencing
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Published on: August 25, 2018

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Diversity and Distribution of Mites (ACARI) Revealed by Contamination Survey in Public Genomic Databases

Jiazheng Xie1, Yi Zhang1

  • 1Chongqing Key Laboratory of Big Data for Bio Intelligence, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongqing 400065, China.

Animals : an Open Access Journal From MDPI
|October 28, 2023
PubMed

Insights

Mites (Acari) contaminate public genomic databases, with 3.1% of assemblies showing contamination. This study provides a valuable resource for understanding mite diversity and phylogeny.

Area of Science:

  • Genomics
  • Bioinformatics
  • Arachnology

Background:

  • Acari (mites and ticks) are a diverse group of microarthropods.
  • Mites are often overlooked due to their small size.
  • Contamination of public genomic databases by microorganisms is a known issue.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the hypothesis that mites contaminate public genomic databases.
  • To systematically survey and analyze mite (Acari) contaminations in the Genbank WGS/TSA database.
  • To provide a valuable resource for understanding mite diversity and phylogeny.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized a DNA barcoding strategy to scan for mite contaminations.
  • Analyzed 22,114 assemblies (17,845 animal, 4269 plant projects) in the Genbank WGS/TSA database.
  • Performed additional taxonomic and phylogenetic analyses on contaminated contigs.

Main Results:

  • 1717 contigs in 681 assemblies (3.1%) were identified as mite contaminations.
  • Most contaminants originated from Magnoliopsida, Insecta, and Pinopsida.
  • Contamination rates were higher in plant or TSA projects, with varied mite distribution among host classes.

Conclusions:

  • This study presents the first systemic survey of mite contaminations in public genomic databases.
  • The identified mite DNA barcode contigs offer a valuable resource for future research.
  • Complicated mite-host associations were revealed through phylogenetic analysis.
Keywords:
AcariDNA barcodedistributiondiversityevolutiongenomic contamination

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