Detection of a Yersinia pestis gene homologue in rodent samples

Timothy A Giles; Alex D Greenwood; Kyriakos Tsangaras; Tom C Giles; Paul A Barrow; Duncan Hannant; Abu-Bakr Abu-Median; Lisa Yon

doi:10.7717/peerj.2216

Detection of a Yersinia pestis gene homologue in rodent samples

PeerJ. 2016 Aug 17:4:e2216. doi: 10.7717/peerj.2216. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Timothy A Giles¹, Alex D Greenwood², Kyriakos Tsangaras³, Tom C Giles⁴, Paul A Barrow¹, Duncan Hannant¹, Abu-Bakr Abu-Median¹, Lisa Yon¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham, Loughborough, Leicestershire, United Kingdom.
² Department of Wildlife Diseases, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research,Berlin,Germany; Department of Veterinary Medicine, Freie Universität Berlin,Berlin,Germany.
³ Department of Wildlife Diseases, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research,Berlin,Germany; Department of Translational Genetics, Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics,Nicosia,Cyprus.
⁴ The Advanced Data Analysis Centre, University of Nottingham, Leicestershire, United Kingdom.

Abstract

A homologue to a widely used genetic marker, pla, for Yersinia pestis has been identified in tissue samples of two species of rat (Rattus rattus and Rattus norvegicus) and of mice (Mus musculus and Apodemus sylvaticus) using a microarray based platform to screen for zoonotic pathogens of interest. Samples were from urban locations in the UK (Liverpool) and Canada (Vancouver). The results indicate the presence of an unknown bacterium that shares a homologue for the pla gene of Yersinia pestis, so caution should be taken when using this gene as a diagnostic marker.

Keywords: Microarray; Rodents; Screening; Yersinia pestis.

Grants and funding

This research has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no 222633. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.