Abstract
Orientia tsutsugamushi is the etiological agent of scrub typhus, a mite-borne, febrile illness that occurs in the Asia-Pacific region. We conducted strain characterization of O. tsutsugamushi isolates from chiggers obtained from rodents based the nucleotide sequence of the 56-kDa outer membrane protein gene. With the use of PCR, a total of 68 DNA sequences of 56-kDa antigen genes were amplified. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that there were at least six definable clusters among the 68 isolates: 37% Karp-related strains (25/68), 27% TA763 strains (18/68), 12% JG-related strains (8/68), 19% Kato-related strains (13/68), 4% divergent strains (3/68), and 1% representing a Gilliam prototype strain (1/68). Overall, the O. tsutsugamushi genotypes exhibited a high degree of diversity, similar to that seen in strains from the rest of the areas where scrub typhus is endemic. Moreover, the 56-kDa protein sequence similarity between O. tsutsugamushi isolates from mites and those from human patients (H. Y. Lu et al., Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 83:658-663, 2010) were striking, thus highlighting potential risk factors for this emerging zoonotic disease.
Publication types
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Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
MeSH terms
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Animals
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Antigens, Bacterial / genetics*
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Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins / genetics*
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Bacterial Typing Techniques*
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Cluster Analysis
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DNA, Bacterial / chemistry
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DNA, Bacterial / genetics
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Genetic Variation
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Genotype
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Molecular Sequence Data
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Molecular Typing*
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Orientia tsutsugamushi / classification*
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Orientia tsutsugamushi / genetics
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Phylogeny
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Rodentia / parasitology*
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Sequence Analysis, DNA
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Taiwan
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Trombiculidae / microbiology*
Substances
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Antigens, Bacterial
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Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins
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DNA, Bacterial
Associated data
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GENBANK/GU120139
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GENBANK/GU120140
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