The genome sequence of Rickettsia felis identifies the first putative conjugative plasmid in an obligate intracellular parasite

We sequenced the genome of Rickettsia felis, a flea-associated obligate intracellular alpha-proteobacterium causing spotted fever in humans. Besides a circular chromosome of 1,485,148 bp, R. felis exhibits the first putative conjugative plasmid identified among obligate intracellular bacteria. This...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLoS biology 2005-08, Vol.3 (8), p.e248-e248
Main Authors: Ogata, Hiroyuki, Renesto, Patricia, Audic, Stéphane, Robert, Catherine, Blanc, Guillaume, Fournier, Pierre-Edouard, Parinello, Hugues, Claverie, Jean-Michel, Raoult, Didier
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acclimatization
Antigens, Surface - analysis
Antigens, Surface - classification
Bacteriology
Bioinformatics/Computational Biology
Chromosome Mapping
DNA, Bacterial - genetics
Eubacteria
Genes, Bacterial
Genetics/Genomics/Gene Therapy
Genome, Bacterial
Genomics
Homo (Human)
Infectious Diseases
Microbiology
Microscopy, Electron, Transmission
Molecular Sequence Data
Open Reading Frames
Phenotype
Plasmids
Plasmids - genetics
Plasmids - isolation & purification
Proteins
Rickettsia felis - genetics
Rickettsia felis - pathogenicity
Rickettsia felis - ultrastructure
Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We sequenced the genome of Rickettsia felis, a flea-associated obligate intracellular alpha-proteobacterium causing spotted fever in humans. Besides a circular chromosome of 1,485,148 bp, R. felis exhibits the first putative conjugative plasmid identified among obligate intracellular bacteria. This plasmid is found in a short (39,263 bp) and a long (62,829 bp) form. R. felis contrasts with previously sequenced Rickettsia in terms of many other features, including a number of transposases, several chromosomal toxin-antitoxin genes, many more spoT genes, and a very large number of ankyrin- and tetratricopeptide-motif-containing genes. Host-invasion-related genes for patatin and RickA were found. Several phenotypes predicted from genome analysis were experimentally tested: conjugative pili and mating were observed, as well as beta-lactamase activity, actin-polymerization-driven mobility, and hemolytic properties. Our study demonstrates that complete genome sequencing is the fastest approach to reveal phenotypic characters of recently cultured obligate intracellular bacteria.
ISSN:1545-7885
1544-9173
1545-7885
DOI:10.1371/journal.pbio.0030248