Rickettsia felis: molecular characterization of a new member of the spotted fever group.

Bouyer, Donald H.; Stenos, John; Crocquet‐Valdes, Patricia A.; Morón, Cecilia; Popov, Vsevolod L.; Zavala-Velázquez, Jorge E.; Foil, Lane D.; Stothard, Diane R.; Azad, Abdu F.; Walker, David H.

doi:10.1099/00207713-51-2-339

Cited by 126 publications

(112 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…We suggested that discrepancies with previously reported phenotypic findings may have resulted from contamination of R. felis cultures, which was reported after experiments by the group that provided the first description of R. felis [120]. The ELB agent was definitely characterized as a unique spotted fever group rickettsia, and finally the name R. felis was validated [19,76].…”

Section: Flea-borne Spotted Fevercontrasting

confidence: 44%

Tick- and flea-borne rickettsial emerging zoonoses

2005

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- Between 1984 and2004, nine more species or subspecies of spotted fever rickettsiae were identified as emerging agents of tick-borne rickettsioses throughout the world. Six of these species had first been isolated from ticks and later found to be pathogenic to humans. The most recent example is Rickettsia parkeri, recognized as a human pathogen more than 60 years after its initial isolation from ticks. A new spotted fever rickettsia, R. felis was also found to be associated with fleas and to be a human pathogen. Similarly, bacteria within the family Anaplasmataceae have been considered to be of veterinary importance only, yet three species have been implicated in human diseases in recent years, including Ehrlichia chaffeensis, the agent of human monocytic ehrlichiosis, Anaplasma phagocytophilum, the agent of human anaplasmosis (formerly known as "human granulocytic ehrlichiosis agent", E. equi and E. phagocytophila), and finally Ehrlichia ewingii, which causes granulocytic ehrlichiosis in humans. We present here an overview of the various tick-and flea-borne rickettsial zoonoses described in the last 20 years, focusing on the ecological, epidemiological and clinical aspects.

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Section: Flea-borne Spotted Fevercontrasting

confidence: 44%

Tick- and flea-borne rickettsial emerging zoonoses

2005

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“…felis is an emerging pathogen that was first isolated in a commercial colony of cat fleas (1). Upon isolation, R. felis was designated a new species (22) and on the basis of molecular data was placed in the SFG rather than the TG (9). R. felis is transmitted by fleas horizontally and vertically (4).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of Spotted Fever Group Rickettsiae in Flea and Tick Specimens from Northern Peru

et al. 2004

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Evidence of spotted fever group (SFG) rickettsiae was obtained from flea pools and individual ticks collected at three sites in northwestern Peru within the focus of an outbreak of febrile disease in humans attributed, in part, to SFG rickettsia infections. Molecular identification of the etiologic agents from these samples was determined after partial sequencing of the 17-kDa common antigen gene (htrA) as well as pairwise nucleotide sequence homology with one or more of the following genes: gltA, ompA, and ompB. Amplification and sequencing of portions of the htrA and ompA genes in pooled samples (2 of 59) taken from fleas identified the pathogen Rickettsia felis. Four tick samples yielded molecular evidence of SFG rickettsiae. Fragments of the ompA (540-bp) and ompB (2,484-bp) genes were amplified from a single Amblyomma maculatum tick (tick 124) and an Ixodes boliviensis tick (tick 163). The phylogenetic relationships between the rickettsiae in these samples and other rickettsiae were determined after comparison of their ompB sequences by the neighbor-joining method. The dendrograms generated showed that the isolates exhibited close homology (97%) to R. aeschlimannii and R. rhipicephali. Significant bootstrap values supported clustering adjacent to this nodule of the SFG rickettsiae. While the agents identified in the flea and tick samples have not been linked to human cases in the area, these results demonstrate for the first time that at least two SFG rickettsia agents were circulating in northern Peru at the time of the outbreak. Furthermore, molecular analysis of sequences derived from the two separate species of hard ticks identified a possibly novel member of the SFG rickettsiae.Proteobacteria of the family Rickettsiaceae, order Rickettsiales, are made up of highly specialized obligate intracellular, gram-negative bacteria that survive freely within the cytosol of the host cell. Members of the genus Rickettsia are divided into two genetically similar groups, the spotted fever group (SFG) and the typhus group (TG), on the basis of host specificity, intracellular location, in vitro growth conditions, antigenic characteristics, the molecular sequences of conserved genes, clinical features, and epidemiology (15,16,37,38). Seventeen species of the genus Rickettsia are categorized within the SFG rickettsiae. With the exception of Rickettsia akari (mite-borne) and R. felis (flea-borne), the remaining SFG rickettsia species are recognized as tick-borne rickettsiae that are passed to subsequent generations or stages transovarially and transtadially (21). While the members of the SFG rickettsiae are adapted to existence within specific hosts, they are capable of infecting humans after humans are bitten by infected arthropods. The TG contains two species, R. prowazekii and R. typhi.

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“…Spotted fever group Rickettsia are typically associated with ticks; however, there is increasing molecular evidence of one species, Rickettsia felis, in fleas including Ctenocephalides canis (Parola et al, 2003), Pulex irritans (Azad et al, 1997), Anomiopsyllus nudata (Stevenson et al, 2005). Although the list of arthropods infected with R. felis continues to grow, C. felis remains the primary arthropod host (Adams et al, 1990;Bouyer et al, 2001;La Scola et al, 2002;Pornwiroon et al, 2006). While R. felis is maintained in an opossum-flea cycle (Azad et al, 1997;Boostrom et al, 2002), there is also growing evidence that domestic cats also play a role in the maintenance cycle of R. felis (Wedincamp and Foil, 2000;Case et al, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both the original account (Adams et al, 1990) and subsequent descriptions of R. felis (Higgins et al, 1996;Bouyer et al, 2001;La Scola et al, 2002;Pornwiroon et al, 2006) utilized colonized fleas infected with R. felis. Likewise, colonized cat fleas are useful for the analysis of transmission events of R. felis among flea populations (Wedincamp and Foil, 2000.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative microbiota of Rickettsia felis-uninfected and -infected colonized cat fleas, Ctenocephalides felis

et al. 2007

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Fleas serve as arthropod vectors for several emerging and re-emerging infectious disease causing agents including, Rickettsia felis. Although the prevalence of R. felis infection in colonies of fleas has been examined, the influence of the R. felis infection on flea microbiota has not been investigated. We identified three colonies of cat fleas, Ctenocephalides felis, with varying prevalence of R. felis infection (Louisiana State University (LSU), 93.8%; Professional Laboratory and Research Services Inc. (PLRS), 16.4%; Elward II (EL), 0%) and subsequently utilized polymerase chain reaction amplification, restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis and sequencing of the 1.4-kb portions of 16S rRNA genes to examine the diversity of bacteria in the flea populations. A total of 17 different bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences were identified among the C. felis colonies. The prevalence of two Wolbachia species that were identified in each flea colony differed between colonies and R. felis-uninfected and -infected fleas. Species richness was unchanged among the R. felis-uninfected (LSU, PLRS and EL colonies) and -infected (LSU and PLRS colonies) fleas; however, between R. felis-uninfected and -infected fleas within both the LSU and PLRS colonies, R. felisuninfected fleas have greater species richness. Diversity indices did not identify a difference in diversity between any of the flea samples. The interaction of endosymbionts within arthropods can widely impact the dissemination of vertically transmitted pathogenic bacteria; and the reciprocal may be true. These results suggest that carriage of R. felis has an impact on the richness of flea microbiota.

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Rickettsia felis: molecular characterization of a new member of the spotted fever group.

Cited by 126 publications

References 41 publications

Tick- and flea-borne rickettsial emerging zoonoses

Tick- and flea-borne rickettsial emerging zoonoses

Characterization of Spotted Fever Group Rickettsiae in Flea and Tick Specimens from Northern Peru

Comparative microbiota of Rickettsia felis-uninfected and -infected colonized cat fleas, Ctenocephalides felis

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