Abstract
C. burnetii is a Gram-negative intracellular Y-proteobacteria that causes the zoonotic disease Q fever. Q fever can manifest as an acute or chronic illness. Different typing methods have been previously developed to classify C. burnetii isolates to explore its pathogenicity. Here, we report a comprehensive genomotyping method based on the presence or absence of genes using microarrays. The genomotyping method was then tested in 52 isolates obtained from different geographic areas, different hosts and patients with different clinical manifestations. The analysis revealed the presence of 10 genomotypes organized into 3 groups, with a topology congruent with that obtained through multi-spacer typing. We also found that only 4 genomotypes were specifically associated with acute Q fever, whereas all of the genomotypes could be associated to chronic human infection. Serendipitously, the genomotyping results revealed that all hard tick isolates, including the Nine Mile strain, belong to the same genomotype.
Highlights
C. burnetii is a Gram-negative intracellular Y-proteobacteria that causes Q fever, which is a zoonotic disease with a worldwide distribution [1]
We compared the results to the previous study using comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) in C. burnetii [14]
We found comparable results between our deleted gene set and the set obtained by the previous CGH study
Summary
C. burnetii is a Gram-negative intracellular Y-proteobacteria that causes Q fever, which is a zoonotic disease with a worldwide distribution [1]. Q fever can manifest as an acute or chronic illness. Acute Q fever is typically a self-limiting febrile illness during which pneumonia or hepatitis can occur, whereas chronic Q fever is a severe illness in which patients can present endocarditis, vascular infection, osteomyelitis and chronic hepatitis [1]. Phase I is highly infectious and corresponds to the natural phase found in animals, including humans and arthropods, whereas phase II is not very infectious, presents truncated LPS and can be obtained after several passages in cell culture or from embryonated eggs [1]. The C. burnetii genome was sequenced in 2003, and its size is approximately 2 Mbp, with a plasmid of approximately 38 kbp [3]. 3 new isolates of this species were sequenced [4]
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