Rickettsia lusitaniae sp. nov. isolated from the soft tick Ornithodoros erraticus (Acarina: Argasidae)

Milhano, N.; Palma, M.; Marcili, A.; Núncio, M.S.; Lopes de Carvalho, I.; Sousa, R.

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.18/4378

Use this identifier to reference this record.

Name:	Description:	Size:	Format:
192 Rickettsia lusitaniae isolated....Ornithodoros erraticus.pdf		535.12 KB	Adobe PDF	Download

Send Feedback

Authors

Lopes de Carvalho, I.

Sousa, R.

Abstract(s)

In this study a novel Rickettsia from the spotted fever group, isolated from Ornithodoros erraticus soft ticks collected from pigpens in the south of Portugal, is described. After initial screening revealed Rickettsia-positive ticks, isolation attempts were then performed. Successful isolates were achieved by shell-vial technique using Vero E6 cells at 28°C. Molecular characterization of the isolate was performed based on analysis of five rickettsial genes gltA, ompA, ompB, sca1 and htr with their subsequent concatenation along with other rickettsial species resulting in a clustering of the new isolate with Rickettsia felis and Rickettsia hoogstraalii. The degree of nucleotide sequence similarity with other rickettsiae fulfills the criteria for classification of our isolate as a novel species. The name Rickettsia lusitaniae sp. nov. (=CEVDI PoTiRo) is proposed for this new species found in O. erraticus.