Rickettsia felis is maintained transovarially in Ctenocephalides felis fleas in a widespread geographic distribution and is transmitted to humans and animals, including opossums. This rickettsia is phylogenetically a member of the spotted fever group, most closely related to Rickettsia akari and R. australis. An unusual feature of this rickettsia is that the gene for the outer membrane protein A (OmpA) is interrupted by stop codons. To determine if this putatively dying gene is expressed, mRNA was extracted from laboratory-maintained, R. felis-infected cat fleas. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction amplification of three segments of the ompA gene indicated that mRNA of ompA is actively transcribed in fleas. The cDNA sequences expressed represented mRNA of the first 1860-basepair segment of ompA, which includes domains I and II, part of domain III, the region from site 1836 to site 2180, despite the presence of several stop codons, and the open reading frame from site 2788 to site 3837. The detected sequences showed several differences in the amino acid composition when compared with the previously reported sequence.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1440719 | PMC |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Spotted fever group rickettsiae in black rats, pets, and humans in Zungarococha community, A rural area in the surroundings of Iquitos, Peru.
Ticks Tick Borne Dis
January 2025
Department of Medicine and Epidemiology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA USA. Electronic address:
Rickettsiae are a family of ectoparasite-borne bacteria that can produce high morbidity and mortality among humans. There are scarce data on rickettsial ecology in rural areas of the Peruvian Amazon basin, where seroprevalence has not been determined, and the identities of animals acting as reservoirs of these bacteria are not known. We conducted a cross-sectional study in Zungarococha (between 2019 and 2021), a rural community located approximately 20 km away from Iquitos city.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMolecular Detection of spp. and Other Tick-Borne Pathogens in Ticks from a Nature Reserve: Implications for Zoonotic Transmission.
Animals (Basel)
December 2024
Centro di Referenza Nazionale per Anaplasma, Babesia Rickettsia, Theileria (C.R.A.Ba.R.T.), Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Sicilia "A. Mirri", 90129 Palermo, Italy.
Ticks are a major concern for both animal and human health, as they are primary vectors of infectious pathogens. This study focused on ticks found in a nature reserve in southern Italy, highly frequented for recreational activities and inhabited by wild boars. Using molecular techniques, 214 ticks, including questing ticks and those removed from wild boars, were examined for tick-borne pathogens (TBPs), with a focus on zoonotic pathogens.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTick-, flea- and mite-borne pathogens and associated diseases of public health importance in Bangladesh: a review.
Infect Med (Beijing)
December 2024
Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA 30458, USA.
Background: This scoping review provides a baseline summary of the current records of the ticks, fleas, and mites of public health importance that are present in Bangladesh. It summarizes their geographic distributions and reports the levels of their infestation of livestock, pets, wildlife, and humans, and the clinical and epidemiological studies pertinent to these vectors and their pathogens.
Methods: Sixty-one articles were identified in a literature search, including 43 published since 2011.
Murine typhus: a re-emerging rickettsial zoonotic disease.
J Vector Ecol
December 2024
Urban and Public Health Entomology Program, Department of Agricultural Science and Plant Protection, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762 U.S.A.
Murine typhus, caused by , is re-emerging in many parts of the world. The disease is also called endemic typhus to differentiate from epidemic typhus (caused by ), and sometimes also named flea-borne typhus. Occasionally, literature sources will include as a causative agent of flea-borne typhus, but illnesses caused by are actually flea-borne spotted fever.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPulmonary Infection Detected via Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing in a Clonorchiasis Patient: A Case Report.
Infect Drug Resist
November 2024
Department of Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University, Shenzhen Second People's Hospital, Shenzhen, People's Republic of China.
() is a Gram-negative obligate intracellular bacterium with a global presence across various hosts, including mammals, humans, and ectoparasites. Herein, we present a case of infection in a previously healthy 43-year-old male with a history of and recent corticosteroid use. The identification of was accomplished through metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) of the patient's bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!