This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Supplemental material
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Baldridge, G. D.
Right arrow Articles by Munderloh, U. G.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Baldridge, G. D.
Right arrow Articles by Munderloh, U. G.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by Baldridge, G. D.
Right arrow Articles by Munderloh, U. G.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2008, p. 645-652, Vol. 74, No. 3
0099-2240/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02262-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Plasmids of the pRM/pRF Family Occur in Diverse Rickettsia Species{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Gerald D. Baldridge,* Nicole Y. Burkhardt, Roderick F. Felsheim, Timothy J. Kurtti, and Ulrike G. Munderloh

Department of Entomology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota 55108

Received 4 October 2007/ Accepted 20 November 2007

The recent discoveries of the pRF and pRM plasmids of Rickettsia felis and R. monacensis have contravened the long-held dogma that plasmids are not present in the bacterial genus Rickettsia (Rickettsiales; Rickettsiaceae). We report the existence of plasmids in R. helvetica, R. peacockii, R. amblyommii, and R. massiliae isolates from ixodid ticks and in an R. hoogstraalii isolate from an argasid tick. R. peacockii and four isolates of R. amblyommii from widely separated geographic locations contained plasmids that comigrated with pRM during pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and larger plasmids with mobilities similar to that of pRF. The R. peacockii plasmids were lost during long-term serial passage in cultured cells. R. montanensis did not contain a plasmid. Southern blots showed that sequences similar to those of a DnaA-like replication initiator protein, a small heat shock protein 2, and the Sca12 cell surface antigen genes on pRM and pRF were present on all of the plasmids except for that of R. massiliae, which lacked the heat shock gene and was the smallest of the plasmids. The R. hoogstraalii plasmid was most similar to pRM and contained apparent homologs of proline/betaine transporter and SpoT stringent response genes on pRM and pRF that were absent from the other plasmids. The R. hoogstraalii, R. helvetica, and R. amblyommii plasmids contained homologs of a pRM-carried gene similar to a Nitrobacter sp. helicase RecD/TraA gene, but none of the plasmids hybridized with a probe derived from a pRM-encoded gene similar to a Burkholderia sp. transposon resolvase gene.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Entomology, University of Minnesota, 1980 Folwell Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108. Phone: (612) 624-3688. Fax: (612) 625-5299. E-mail: baldr001{at}umn.edu

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 7 December 2007.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://aem.asm.org/.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2008, p. 645-652, Vol. 74, No. 3
0099-2240/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02262-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Sunyakumthorn, P., Bourchookarn, A., Pornwiroon, W., David, C., Barker, S. A., Macaluso, K. R. (2008). Characterization and Growth of Polymorphic Rickettsia felis in a Tick Cell Line. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 74: 3151-3158 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology.   For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»