Identification of Novel Coxiella burnetii Genotypes from Ethiopian Ticks

Coxiella burnetii, the etiologic agent of Q fever, is a highly infectious zoonotic bacterium. Genetic information about the strains of this worldwide distributed agent circulating on the African continent is limited. The aim of the present study was the genetic characterization of C. burnetii DNA sa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one Vol. 9; no. 11; p. e113213
Main Authors: Sulyok, Kinga M., Hornok, Sándor, Abichu, Getachew, Erdélyi, Károly, Gyuranecz, Miklós
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Public Library of Science 25.11.2014
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:
Abortion
Analysis
Animals
Biology and Life Sciences
Bovidae
Cattle
Coxiella burnetii
Coxiella burnetii - classification
Coxiella burnetii - genetics
Coxiella burnetii - isolation & purification
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
DNA, Bacterial - genetics
Endocarditis
Epidemics
Ethiopia
Etiology
Fever
Genetic aspects
Genetic testing
Genomes
Genomics
Genotype
Genotype & phenotype
Genotypes
Medical research
Medicine and Health Sciences
Nucleotide sequence
Phylogenetics
Phylogeny
Q fever
Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
Ticks
Ticks - microbiology
Ethiopia
ISSN:1932-6203, 1932-6203
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Coxiella burnetii, the etiologic agent of Q fever, is a highly infectious zoonotic bacterium. Genetic information about the strains of this worldwide distributed agent circulating on the African continent is limited. The aim of the present study was the genetic characterization of C. burnetii DNA samples detected in ticks collected from Ethiopian cattle and their comparison with other genotypes found previously in other parts of the world. A total of 296 tick samples were screened by real-time PCR targeting the IS1111 region of C. burnetii genome and from the 32 positive samples, 8 cases with sufficient C. burnetii DNA load (Amblyomma cohaerens, n = 6; A. variegatum, n = 2) were characterized by multispacer sequence typing (MST) and multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA). One novel sequence type (ST), the proposed ST52, was identified by MST. The MLVA-6 discriminated the proposed ST52 into two newly identified MLVA genotypes: type 24 or AH was detected in both Amblyomma species while type 26 or AI was found only in A. cohaerens. Both the MST and MLVA genotypes of the present work are closely related to previously described genotypes found primarily in cattle samples from different parts of the globe. This finding is congruent with the source hosts of the analyzed Ethiopian ticks, as these were also collected from cattle. The present study provides genotype information of C. burnetii from this seldom studied East-African region as well as further evidence for the presumed host-specific adaptation of this agent.
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Conceived and designed the experiments: MG. Performed the experiments: KMS SH GA. Analyzed the data: KMS KE MG. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SH MG. Wrote the paper: KMS KE MG.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0113213