| isolation and genetic characterization of a bartonella strain closely related to bartonella tribocorum and bartonella elizabethae in israeli commensal rats. | ten bartonella isolates were cultured from blood drawn from black rats (rattus rattus) captured in the tel aviv area. genetic characterization included amplification and sequencing of five gene fragments including the ribc, rpob, 16s, groel, and glta and the 16s-23s intergenic spacer region. sequence comparisons showed that all 10 isolates were identical in all genes studied comprising a total of 3,873 bp analyzed. the sequences of each of the partial genes analyzed indicated a high sequence sim ... | 2009 | 19556567 |
| preliminary survey of ectoparasites and associated pathogens from norway rats in new york city. | the norway rat (rattus norvegicus) is a reservoir of many zoonotic pathogens and lives in close proximity to humans in urban environments. human infection with rodent-borne disease occurs either directly through contact with a rat or its excreta, or indirectly via arthropod vectors such as fleas and ticks. here, we report on the diversity and abundance of ectoparasitic arthropod species and associated pathogenic bacteria from 133 norway rats trapped over a 10-mo period in manhattan, new york, ny ... | 2015 | 26336309 |
| prevalence and diversity of bartonella species in commensal rodents and ectoparasites from nigeria, west africa. | bartonellae are fastidious bacteria causing persistent bacteremia in humans and a wide variety of animals. in recent years there is an increasing interest in mammalian bartonelloses in general and in rodent bartonelloses in particular. to date, no studies investigating the presence of bartonella spp. in rodents and ectoparasites from nigeria were carried out. | 2013 | 23738028 |
| prevalence and diversity of bartonella species in rodents from georgia (caucasus). | bartonella infections are widespread and highly prevalent in rodents. several rodent-associated bartonella species have been related to human diseases. recently, bartonella species was reported as the etiology of a human case in the country of georgia (caucasus). however, information on bartonella in rodents in georgia is absent. rodent hearts were collected from georgia to investigate the presence and diversity of bartonella species. bartonella bacteria were cultured from 37.2% (16/43) of roden ... | 2016 | 27162268 |
| bartonella spp. in small mammals, benin. | this study aimed to investigate the prevalence and genetic diversity of bartonella organisms in small mammals in cotonou, benin. we captured 163 rodents and 12 insectivores and successfully detected bartonella dna from 13 of the 175 small mammal individuals. bartonella spp., identical or closely related to bartonella elizabethae, bartonella tribocorum, and bartonella rochalimae, was detected. a potential new bartonella species, proposed as candidatus bartonella mastomydis, was found in three mas ... | 2016 | 26910412 |
| bartonella species in fleas from palestinian territories: prevalence and genetic diversity. | bartonellosis is an infectious bacterial disease. the prevalence and genetic characteristics of bartonella spp. in fleas of wild and domestic animals from palestinian territories are described. flea samples (n=289) were collected from 121 cats, 135 dogs, 26 hyraxes and seven rats from northern (n=165), central (n=113), and southern palestinian territories (n=11). the prevalent flea species were: ctenocephalides felis (n=119/289; 41.2%), ctenocephalides canis (n=159/289; 55%), and xenopsylla sp. ... | 2014 | 25424254 |
| two rep genes in small cryptic plasmid pkst21 of escherichia coli. | the complete nucleotide sequence of a small cryptic plasmid pkst21 from escherichia coli was determined. this plasmid is 1,460 bp long with an overall gc content of 51 %. based on sequence analysis, the presence of two segments with different average gc density was observed. the segment with higher gc content revealed 98-90 % similarity to several small plasmids of e. coli and to pcr1 from gram-positive corynebacterium renale. plasmid pkst21 possesses two conversely oriented open reading frames ... | 2013 | 23680975 |
| molecular detection and identification of bartonella species in xenopsylla cheopis fleas (siphonaptera: pulicidae) collected from rattus norvegicus rats in los angeles, california. | of 200 individual xenopsylla cheopis fleas removed from rattus norvegicus rats trapped in downtown los angeles, ca, 190 (95%) were positive for the presence of bartonella dna. ninety-one amplicons were sequenced: bartonella rochalimae-like dna was detected in 66 examined fleas, and bartonella tribocorum-like dna was identified in 25 fleas. the data obtained from this study demonstrate an extremely high prevalence of bartonella dna in rat-associated fleas. | 2011 | 21908631 |
| a multi-gene analysis of diversity of bartonella detected in fleas from algeria. | we report the molecular detection of several bartonella species in 44 (21.5%) of 204 fleas from algeria collected from 26 rodents and 7 hedgehogs. bartonella elizabethae and b. clarridgeiae were detected in the fleas collected on hedgehogs. bartonella tribocorum and b. elizabethae were detected in fleas collected from rats and mice, and sequences similar to an unnamed bartonella sp. detected in rodents from china were detected in rats as well as a genotype of bartonella closely related to barton ... | 2011 | 22153359 |
| identification of novel bartonella spp. in bats and evidence of asian gray shrew as a new potential reservoir of bartonella. | many studies indicated that small mammals are important reservoirs for bartonella species. using molecular methods, several studies have documented that bats could harbor bartonella. this study was conducted to investigate the relationship of bartonella spp. identified in bats and small mammals living in the same ecological environment. during may 2009 and march 2010, a total of 102 blood specimens were collected. by whole blood culture and molecular identification, a total of 6 bats, 1 rodent a ... | 2011 | 22005177 |
| the trw type iv secretion system of bartonella mediates host-specific adhesion to erythrocytes. | bacterial pathogens typically infect only a limited range of hosts; however, the genetic mechanisms governing host-specificity are poorly understood. the alpha-proteobacterial genus bartonella comprises 21 species that cause host-specific intraerythrocytic bacteremia as hallmark of infection in their respective mammalian reservoirs, including the human-specific pathogens bartonella quintana and bartonella bacilliformis that cause trench fever and oroya fever, respectively. here, we have identifi ... | 2010 | 20548954 |
| functional dissection of the conjugative coupling protein trwb. | the conjugative coupling protein trwb is responsible for connecting the relaxosome to the type iv secretion system during conjugative dna transfer of plasmid r388. it is directly involved in transport of the relaxase trwc, and it displays an atpase activity probably involved in dna pumping. we designed a conjugation assay in which the frequency of dna transfer is directly proportional to the amount of trwb. a collection of point mutants was constructed in the trwb cytoplasmic domain on the basis ... | 2010 | 20363945 |
| prevalence and genetic heterogeneity of bartonella strains cultured from rodents from 17 provinces in thailand. | to study the distribution and diversity of bartonella in rodents from thailand, 330 rodents belonging to 13 species were tested. the majority (80.6%) of rodents examined belonged to the genus rattus. bartonellae were cultured from 41.5% of the rodents with a wide range of prevalence by host species and regions. sequencing of glta revealed diverse bartonella strains. bartonellae from rattus spp. belonged to 23 variants and clustered with bartonella coopersplainensis, bartonella elizabethae, barto ... | 2009 | 19861616 |
| genomics of host-restricted pathogens of the genus bartonella. | the alpha-proteobacterial genus bartonella comprises numerous arthropod-borne pathogens that share a common host-restricted life-style, which is characterized by long-lasting intraerythrocytic infections in their specific mammalian reservoirs and transmission by blood-sucking arthropods. infection of an incidental host (e.g. humans by a zoonotic species) may cause disease in the absence of intra-erythrocytic infection. the genome sequences of four bartonella species are known, i.e. those of the ... | 2009 | 19696500 |
| epidemiology of bartonella infection in rodents and shrews in taiwan. | during the period of august 2002 and november 2004, an epidemiological investigation for bartonella infection was conducted in small mammals in taiwan. using whole blood culture on chocolate agar plates, bartonella species were successfully isolated from 41.3% of the 310 animals tested. the isolation rate of bartonella species varied among different animal species, including 52.7% of the 169 rattus norvegicus, 28.6% of the 126 sucus murinus, 10% of the 10 rattus rattus and 66.7% of the three rat ... | 2010 | 19538457 |
| isolation of bartonella species from rodents in taiwan including a strain closely related to 'bartonella rochalimae' from rattus norvegicus. | an increasing number of bartonella species originally isolated from small mammals have been identified as emerging human pathogens. during an investigation of bartonella infection in rodent populations carried out in taiwan in 2006, a total of 58 rodents were tested. it was determined that 10.3 % (6/58) of the animals were bartonella bacteraemic. after pcr/rflp analysis, four isolates were identified as bartonella elizabethae and one isolate as bartonella tribocorum. however, there was one speci ... | 2008 | 19018019 |
| genomic analysis of bartonella identifies type iv secretion systems as host adaptability factors. | the bacterial genus bartonella comprises 21 pathogens causing characteristic intraerythrocytic infections. bartonella bacilliformis is a severe pathogen representing an ancestral lineage, whereas the other species are benign pathogens that evolved by radial speciation. here, we have used comparative and functional genomics to infer pathogenicity genes specific to the radiating lineage, and we suggest that these genes may have facilitated adaptation to the host environment. we determined the comp ... | 2007 | 18037886 |
| phylogenetic analysis of bartonella detected in rodent fleas in yunnan, china. | previous studies have demonstrated a diversity of bartonella spp. in rodent populations in yunnan province, china. although bartonella spp. have been isolated from cat fleas and cattle ticks collected from their animal hosts, little is known about bartonella carried by rodent fleas. in this study, bartonella dna was detected by polymerase chain reaction (pcr) in two of five species of rodent fleas. these included xenopsylla cheopis and ctenophthalmus lushuiensis, which were collected from rattus ... | 2007 | 17984255 |
| association of bartonella with the fleas (siphonaptera) of rodents and bats using molecular techniques. | bartonella spp. are putatively vector-borne bacterial agents of humans and animals. fleas have been incriminated as vectors of bartonella spp. and are suspected of transmitting bartonella of rodents and bats, but some of these bartonella spp. have not yet been directly detected in wild caught fleas. we report the molecular detection of bartonella tribocorum, bartonella vinsonii subsp. vinsonii, and two novel genotypes of bartonella from the fleas xenopsylla cheopis, ctenophthalmus pseudagyrtes, ... | 2007 | 17633432 |
| louse-borne bacterial pathogens in lice (phthiraptera) of rodents and cattle from egypt. | we collected 1,023 lice, representing 5 species, from rats and domestic cattle throughout 13 governorates in egypt and tested these lice for anaplasma marginale, bartonella spp., brucella spp., borrelia recurrentis, coxiella burnetii, francisella tularensis, and rickettsia spp. by pcr amplification and sequencing. five different louse-borne bacterial agents were detected in lice from rodents or cattle, including "bartonella rattimassiliensis", "b. phoceensis", and bartonella sp. near bartonella ... | 2006 | 16729688 |
| functional interactions between type iv secretion systems involved in dna transfer and virulence. | this paper reports an analysis of the functional interactions between type iv secretion systems (t4ss) that are part of the conjugative machinery for horizontal dna transfer (ct4ss), and t4ss involved in bacterial pathogenicity (pt4ss). the authors' previous work showed that a conjugative coupling protein (t4cp) interacts with the virb10-type component of the t4ss in order to recruit the protein-dna complex to the transporter for conjugative dna transfer. this study now shows by two-hybrid analy ... | 2005 | 16272374 |
| a bacterial conjugation machinery recruited for pathogenesis. | type iv secretion systems (t4ss) are multicomponent transporters of gram-negative bacteria adapted to functions as diverse as dna transfer in bacterial conjugation or the delivery of effector proteins into eukaryotic target cells in pathogenesis. the generally modest sequence conservation between t4ss may reflect their evolutionary distance and/or functional divergence. here, we show that the establishment of intraerythrocytic parasitism by bartonella tribocorum requires a putative t4ss, which s ... | 2003 | 12940985 |
| characterization of the cryptic plasmid pbgr1 from bartonella grahamii and construction of a versatile escherichia coli-bartonella spp. shuttle cloning vector. | we report herein the isolation and molecular characterization of pbgr1, the first native plasmid isolated from the genus bartonella. cloning and sequencing revealed a 2725-base pair (bp) cryptic plasmid comprising two open reading frames of considerable length, which were designated rep and mob. the regions containing rep and mob are separated by 140-bp inverted repeat sequences and display a difference in g + c content from one another. a 1435-bp saci-bcli fragment containing the rep gene is su ... | 2003 | 12584000 |
| the virb/vird4 type iv secretion system of bartonella is essential for establishing intraerythrocytic infection. | bartonellae are pathogenic bacteria uniquely adapted to cause intraerythrocytic infection in their human or animal reservoir host(s). experimental infection of rats by bartonella tribocorum revealed the initial colonization of a yet unidentified niche outside of circulating blood. this primary niche periodically seeds bacteria into the bloodstream, resulting in the invasion and persistent intracellular colonisation of erythrocytes. here, this animal model was used for a genetic analysis of the v ... | 2002 | 12421311 |
| bacterial secrets of secretion: euroconference on the biology of type iv secretion processes. | type iv secretion systems (tfss) mediate secretion or direct cell-to-cell transfer of virulence factors (proteins or protein-dna complexes) from many gram-negative animal, human and plant pathogens, such as agrobacterium tumefaciens, bartonella tribocorum, bordetella pertussis, brucella suis, helicobacter pylori, legionella pneumophila and rickettsia prowazekii, into eukaryotic cells. bacterial conjugation is also classified as a tfss-like process mediating the spread of broad-host-range plasmid ... | 2002 | 11918819 |
| phylogenetic classification of bartonella species by comparing groel sequences. | bartonella is a bacterial genus classified in the alpha-proteobacteria on the basis of 165 rdna sequence comparison. the highly conserved heat-shock chaperonin protein, groel, has proved to be a valuable resolving tool to classify ten bartonella species. the groel gene was amplified and sequenced from ten bartonella isolates: bartonella alsatica, bartonella vinsonii subsp. arupensis, bartonella taylorii, bartonella tribocorum, bartonella birtlesii, bartonella henselae marseille (urlly8), b. hens ... | 2002 | 11837299 |
| molecular phylogeny of the genus bartonella: what is the current knowledge? | species of the genus bartonella are involved in an increasing variety of human diseases. in addition to the 14 currently recognized species, several bartonella strains have been recovered from a wide range of wild and domestic mammals in europe and america. such a high diversity of geographic distributions, animal reservoirs, arthropod vectors and pathogenic properties makes clarification of our knowledge about the phylogeny of bartonella species necessary. phylogenetic data have been inferred m ... | 2001 | 11410341 |
| bartonella tribocorum sp. nov., a new bartonella species isolated from the blood of wild rats. | two bartonella strains from blood of two wild rats (rattus norvegicus) living in a rural environment were isolated. these strains were distinct from all previously known bartonella species based on phenotypic and genotypic characteristics. this new species is distinguished by its trypsin-like activity, the absence of the ability to hydrolyse proline and tributyrin, its 16s rrna and citrate synthase gene sequences and by whole-dna hybridization data. this new species, for which the name bartonell ... | 1998 | 9828434 |
| prevalence and diversity of bartonella species in wild small mammals in asia. | we collected 641 small mammals belonging to 17 species of rodentia and four species of soricomorpha in japan, korea, russia, taiwan, and thailand and investigated the prevalence and genetic diversity of bartonella species. apodemus (field mice) and rattus (rats) were the most-common genera captured, making up 56.0% and 23.1% of the total specimens, respectively. bartonellae were isolated from 54.6% of the collected animals, and the prevalence varied depending on the host species and the country ... | 2016 | 26528573 |
| identification of diverse bartonella genotypes among small mammals from democratic republic of congo and tanzania. | small mammals from the democratic republic (dr) of the congo and tanzania were tested to determine the prevalence and genetic diversity of bartonella species. the presence of bartonella dna was assessed in spleen samples of the animals by rpob- and glta-polymerase chain reactions (pcrs). by rpob-pcr, bartonella was detected in 8 of 59 animals of dr congo and in 16 of 39 tanzanian animals. by glta-pcr, bartonella was detected in 5 and 15 animals of dr congo and tanzania, respectively. the gene se ... | 2012 | 22855765 |
| lymphatic circulation disseminates bartonella infection into bloodstream. | the hallmark of bartonella infection is long-lasting intraerythrocytic parasitism. however, the process of bartonella bacteremia is still enigmatic. in the current study, we used bartonella tribocorum to determine how bartonella invasion into the bloodstream from dermal inoculation might occur. bartonella was poorly phagocytized by peritoneal macrophages in vitro. intracellular bartonella survived and replicated in macrophages at an early stage of infection. intracellular bartonella inhibited sp ... | 2017 | 27803173 |
| an investigation of bartonella spp., rickettsia typhi, and seoul hantavirus in rats (rattus spp.) from an inner-city neighborhood of vancouver, canada: is pathogen presence a reflection of global and local rat population structure? | urban norway and black rats (rattus norvegicus and rattus rattus) are reservoirs for variety of zoonotic pathogens. many of these pathogens, including rickettsia typhi, bartonella spp., and seoul hantavirus (seov), are thought to be endemic in rat populations worldwide; however, past field research has found these organisms to be absent in certain rat populations. rats (rattus spp.) from an inner city neighborhood of vancouver, canada, were tested for exposure to and/or infection with seov and r ... | 2015 | 25629777 |
| isolation and molecular identification of bartonellae from wild rats (rattus species) in malaysia. | this study describes our investigation on the prevalence and molecular identification of bartonellae from rattus diardii and r. norvegicus in the urban areas of malaysia. of 95 rats investigated, bartonella tribocorum, b. rattimassiliensis, b. coopersplainsensis, b. elizabethae, and b. queenslandensis were isolated from kidney and spleen homogenates of four rats. bartonellae dna was amplified from the rat organ tissues by using primers specific for the bartonellae rna polymerase beta subunit (rp ... | 2014 | 24732465 |
| the transmembrane domain of the t4ss coupling protein trwb and its role in protein-protein interactions. | bacteria use type iv secretion systems to transfer genetic material and proteins from donor to recipient cells, using proteins encoded by conjugative plasmids. among those proteins the so-called type iv coupling protein plays a central role in the process. one of the best studied members of this family is trwb, the conjugative coupling protein of r388 plasmid. previous studies indicated that the transmembrane domain of trwb plays a role beyond the mere anchoring of the protein to the membrane. t ... | 2013 | 23735543 |
| structural independence of conjugative coupling protein trwb from its type iv secretion machinery. | the stability of components of multiprotein complexes often relies on the presence of the functional complex. to assess structural dependence among the components of the r388 type iv secretion system (t4ss), the steady-state level of several trw proteins was determined in the absence of other trw components. while several trw proteins were affected by the lack of others, we found that the coupling protein trwb is not affected by the absence of other t4ss components, nor did its absence alter sig ... | 2013 | 23583564 |
| experimental infection of laboratory mice with two bartonella tribocorum strains from wild mus species: a homologous host-bacteria model system at the genus level. | to date no experimental infection studies have been conducted in laboratory mice using mus spp. bartonella strains. therefore we designed a study to evaluate the in vivo infection characteristics of 2 bartonella tribocorum strains from wild mus spp. in laboratory mice with the aim of developing a mouse model that reproduces characteristics of naturally acquired bartonella infections in rodents. groups of outbred cd1 female mice were subcutaneously inoculated with low doses of 2 mouse bartonella ... | 2013 | 22938938 |
| bartonella in rodents and ectoparasites in the canary islands, spain: new insights into host-vector-pathogen relationships. | bartonella genus is comprised of several species of zoonotic relevance and rodents are reservoirs for some of these bartonella species. as there were no data about the range of bartonella species circulating among rodents in the canary islands, our main aim was to overcome this lack of knowledge by targeting both the citrate synthase (glta) and the rna polymerase beta subunit (rpob) genes. a total of 181 small mammals and 154 ectoparasites were obtained in three of the canary islands, namely ten ... | 2017 | 28660292 |