DNA Isolation
All I. scapularis samples were given a unique identifier and
bisected along the medial line. We retained one half of each tick in
70% ethanol, while the other half was used for DNA isolation using the
Qiagen DNeasy Blood and Tissue kit (Hilden, Germany) (Ammazzalorso et
al., 2015). DNA was quantified using a Qubit Fluorometer (Life
Technologies, Inc., California, USA), and all DNA samples were
normalized to 5-9ng/µL prior to library preparation.