Publications by authors named "Jonathan Gerhart"
To detect new and changing SARS-CoV-2 variants, we investigated candidate Delta-Omicron recombinant genomes from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention national genomic surveillance. Laboratory and bioinformatic investigations identified and validated 9 genetically related SARS-CoV-2 viruses with a hybrid Delta-Omicron spike protein.
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- Genomic surveillance is essential for monitoring emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants, which can impact public health by affecting transmissibility and immune response.
- Between June 2021 and January 2022, the CDC enhanced its data collection methods to provide more accurate estimates of variant proportions by utilizing public repositories and refining analysis techniques.
- During this time, the Delta variant initially dominated infections but was quickly supplanted by the Omicron variant, which accounted for nearly all U.S. cases by January 2022, highlighting the need for ongoing surveillance in pandemic response.
Bacterial endosymbionts of ticks are of interest due to their close evolutionary relationships with tick-vectored pathogens. For instance, whereas many ticks contain Francisella-like endosymbionts (FLEs), others transmit the mammalian pathogen Francisella tularensis. We recently sequenced the genome of an FLE present in the hard tick Amblyomma maculatum (FLE-Am) and showed that it likely evolved from a pathogenic ancestor.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTicks (order Ixodida) vector pathogenic bacteria that cause diseases in humans and other mammals. They also contain bacteria that are closely related to pathogens but function as endosymbionts that provide nutrients that are missing from mammalian blood-their sole food source. For instance, mammalian pathogens such as Coxiella burnetii and Francisella tularensis, as well as Coxiella-like and Francisella-like endosymbionts (CLEs and FLEs, respectively) occur in ticks worldwide.
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