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Overcoming Barriers to the Transformation of the Genus Ehrlichia
Author(s) -
LONG S WESLEY,
WHITWORTH TED J.,
WALKER DAVID H.,
YU XUEJIE
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1196/annals.1355.072
Subject(s) - ehrlichia , ehrlichia chaffeensis , amblyomma americanum , ehrlichiosis , biology , anaplasmataceae , tick , virology , microbiology and biotechnology , anaplasma , ixodidae
A bstract : While bacterial transformation has evolved since the early 20th century to allow for the genetic manipulation of a variety of microbial agents, rickettsial organisms have proved resistant to such advances until only recently. The Ehrlichia are small, gram‐negative, obligately intracellular bacterial parasites, which belong to the family Anaplasmataceae and cause a variety of infections in human and animal hosts. E. chaffeensis is the causative agent of human monocytotropic ehrlichiosis and is transmitted by Amblyomma americanum , the Lone Star tick. In this work, we describe the first report of successful transformation of a closely related ehrlichial species, the murine monocytotropic species E. muris . Application of these techniques should allow for a wide variety of molecular studies to be performed that were previously impossible. This heralds the beginning of a new era in ehrlichial research.