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The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) is an umbrella organization of biological societies. In 2020, AIBS developed a plan to intentionally assess its current programs, as well as to develop and expand programs and policies to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the biological sciences. Therefore, AIBS decided, for the next 5 years, to focus its annual meeting of member societies and organizations, the AIBS Council Meeting, on topics related to DEI. In 2021, AIBS was funded by the National Science Foundation and received additional support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation for its expanded annual council meeting, Enabling Scientific Societies to Create Inclusive, Diverse, Equitable, and Accepting (IDEA) Environments. The IDEA conference was created to engage like-minded organizations committed to increasing diversity in the biological sciences. The conference consists of two meetings, an initial virtual 2-day meeting followed by a virtual 1.5-day workshop. The initial meeting included 27 scientific societies with representatives from five minority-serving scientific organizations. This meeting of the IDEA conference, held 4–5 November 2021, served as a call to action that would allow participants to come together to learn, plan, and strategize. This report provides details of the discussions around characteristics of IDEA environments, barriers to creating IDEA environments, strategies to overcome these barriers, and opportunities for action. The agenda can be found within the supplemental material. 

Ticks are important vectors of pathogenic viruses, bacteria, and protozoans to humans, wildlife, and domestic animals. Due to their life cycles, ticks face significant challenges related to water homeostasis. When blood‐feeding, they must excrete water and ions, but when off‐host (for stretches lasting several months), they must conserve water to avoid desiccation. Aquaporins (AQPs), a family of membrane‐bound water channels, are key players in osmoregulation in many animals but remain poorly characterized in ticks. Here, we bioinformatically identified AQP‐like genes from the deer tickIxodes scapularisand used phylogenetic approaches to map the evolution of the aquaporin gene family in arthropods. Most arachnid AQP‐like sequences (including those ofI. scapularis) formed a monophyletic group clustered within aquaglycerolporins (GLPs) from bacteria to vertebrates. This gene family is absent from insects, revealing divergent evolutionary paths for AQPs in different hematophagous arthropods. Next, we sequenced the full‐length cDNA ofI. scapularisaquaporin 1 (IsAQP1) and expressed it heterologously inXenopusoocytes to functionally characterize its permeability to water and solutes. Additionally, we examinedIsAQP1expression across different life stages and adult female organs. We foundIsAQP1is an efficient water channel with high expression in salivary glands prior to feeding, suggesting it plays a role in osmoregulation before or during blood feeding. Its functional properties are unique: unlike most GLPs,IsAQP1has low glycerol permeability, and unlike most AQPs, it is insensitive to mercury. Together, our results suggestIsAQP1plays an important role in tick water balance physiology and that it may hold promise as a target of novel vector control efforts.