Rickettsia is a genus of Motility, gram-negative, Endospore, highly pleomorphic bacteria that may occur in the forms of cocci (0.1 μm in diameter), bacilli (1–4 μm long), or threads (up to about 10 μm long). The genus was named after Howard Taylor Ricketts in honor of his pioneering work on tick-borne spotted fever.
Properly, Rickettsia is the name of a single genus, but the informal term "rickettsia", plural "rickettsias," usually not capitalised, commonly applies to any members of the order Rickettsiales. Being obligate intracellular bacteria, rickettsias depend on entry, growth, and replication within the cytoplasm of living eukaryote host cells (typically Endothelium cells).
Pathogenic Rickettsia species are transmitted by numerous types of , including chiggers, , , and lice, and are associated with both human and plant diseases. Most notably, Rickettsia species are the pathogens responsible for typhus, rickettsialpox, boutonneuse fever, African tick-bite fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Flinders Island spotted fever, and Queensland tick typhus (Australian tick typhus). The majority of pathogenic Rickettsia bacteria are susceptible to of the tetracycline group.
Rickettsias are more widespread than previously believed and are known to be associated with , , and . Divisions have also been identified in the spotted fever group and this group should probably be divided into two . . Arthropod-inhabiting rickettsiae are generally associated with reproductive manipulation (such as parthenogenesis) to persist in host lineage.
In March 2010, Swedish researchers reported a case of bacterial meningitis in a woman caused by Rickettsia helvetica previously thought to be harmless. "Rickettsia helvetica in Patient with Meningitis, Sweden, 2006" Emerging Infectious Diseases, Volume 16, Number 3 – March 2010
Infection occurs in nonhuman mammals; for example, species of Rickettsia have been found to afflict the South American guanaco, Lama guanacoeC. Michael Hogan. 2008. Guanaco: Lama guanicoe, GlobalTwitcher.com, ed. N. Strömberg potentially marsupialsVilcins IE, Old JM, Deane EM (2009). Molecular detection of Rickettsia, Coxiella and Rickettsiella in three Australian native tick species. Experimental and Applied Acarology. 49(3), 229-242. DOI: 10.1007/s10493-009-9260-4Vilcins IE, Old JM, Deane EM (2008). Detection of a spotted fever group Rickettsia in the tick Ixodes tasmani collected from koalas ( Phascolarctos cinereus) in Port Macquarie, N.S.W. Journal of Medical Entomology. 45(4), 745-750. DOI: 10.1016/j.vetpar.2009.02.015 and reptiles.Vilcins I, Fournier P, Old JM, Deane EM (2009). Evidence for the presence of Francisella and spotted fever group Rickettsia DNA in the Tick Amblyomma fimbriatum (Acari: Ixodidae), Northern Territory, Australia. Journal of Medical Entomology. 46(4), 926-933. doi: 10.1186/s13071-015-0719-3
ATP production in Rickettsia is the same as that in mitochondria. In fact, of all the microbes known, the Rickettsia is probably the closest relative (in a phylogenetic sense) to the mitochondria. Unlike the latter, the genome of R. prowazekii, however, contains a complete set of genes encoding for the tricarboxylic acid cycle and the respiratory chain complex. Still, the genomes of the Rickettsia, as well as the mitochondria, are frequently said to be "small, highly derived products of several types of reductive evolution".
The recent discovery of another parallel between Rickettsia and viruses may become a basis for fighting HIV infection. Human immune response to the scrub typhus pathogen, Orientia tsutsugamushi, appears to provide a beneficial effect against HIV infection progress, negatively influencing the virus replication process. A probable reason for this actively studied phenomenon is a certain degree of homology between the rickettsiae and the virus, namely, common epitope(s) due to common genome fragment(s) in both pathogens. Surprisingly, the other infection reported to be likely to provide the same effect (decrease in viral load) is the virus-caused illness dengue fever.
Comparative analysis of genomic sequences have also identified five conserved signature indels in important proteins, which are uniquely found in members of the genus Rickettsia. These indels consist of a four-amino-acid insertion in transcription repair coupling factor Mfd, a 10-amino-acid insertion in ribosomal protein L19, a one-amino-acid insertion in FtsZ, a one-amino-acid insertion in major sigma factor 70, and a one-amino-acid deletion in exonuclease VII. These indels are all characteristic of the genus and serve as molecular markers for Rickettsia.
Bacterial small RNAs play critical roles in virulence and stress/adaptation responses. Although their specific functions have not been discovered in Rickettsia, few studies showed the expression of novel sRNA in human microvascular Endothelium (HMEC) infected with Rickettsia.
Genomes of intracellular or parasitic bacteria undergo massive reduction compared to their free-living relatives. Examples include Rickettsia for alpha proteobacteria, T. whipplei for Actinobacteria, Mycoplasma for Firmicutes (the low G+C content Gram-positive), and Wigglesworthia and Buchnera for gamma proteobacteria.
In his early part of career, he undertook research at Northwestern University on blastomycosis. He later worked on Rocky Mountain spotted fever at the University of Chicago and Bitterroot Valley of Montana. He was so devoted to his research that on several occasions, he injected himself with pathogens to study their effects. On account of the apparent similarity between Rocky Mountain fever and typhus fever, he became occupied in investigating the latter in Chicago where the disease was epidemic, and became a victim of the epidemic in 1910. His investigations and discoveries added materially to the sum of medical knowledge.
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