Prevalence and Genetic Diversity of Bartonella Species Isolated from Wild Rodents in Japan

Phylogenetic classification of Japanese Bartonella isolates based on sequences of rpoB (left) and gltA (right). The phylogenetic tree was constructed by the neighbor-joining method, and bootstrap values were obtained with 1,000 replicates. Only bootstrap replicates of >70% are noted. The 31 and 29 different sequences of rpoB and gltA, respectively, from Japanese Bartonella isolates were classified into eight clusters, A to H for rpoB and I to P for gltA. Based on the correlation between respective clusters in rpoB and gltA, combinations of clusters such as A-I, B-J, C-K, D-L, E-M, F-N, G-O, and H-P were assigned as Bartonella genetic groups. The numbers of Bartonella isolates with identical DNA sequences are shown in parentheses at the right and left of the respective GenBank accession numbers for the rpoB and gltA sequences, respectively. The rodent species associated with the respective Bartonella genetic groups are shown between the two trees. The rpoB and gltA sequences from Brucella melitensis 16 M^T were used as an outgroup bacterium.