How some ticks protect themselves from deadly bacteria on human skin
Lyme disease-spreading arachnids co-opted an ancient bacterial gene to eliminate microbes
Black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis, shown) can use a gene that they stole from bacteria millions of years ago to protect themselves from microbes living on human skin.
Patrick Randall/Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)