Journal
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
Volume 11, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
NATURE RESEARCH
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-80690-7
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Funding
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) [26460532, 17K08835, 20K07499]
- Research Program on Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases from Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) [16fk0108210h0302, 17fk0108310h503, 18fk0108068h0201, 19fk0108068h0202, 20fk0108068h0203]
- [20J14725]
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [17K08835, 20K07499] Funding Source: KAKEN
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This study conducted a molecular-based taxonomic and ecological characterization of uncultured Ehrlichia species or genotypes from ticks in Japan, discovering potentially new Ehrlichia species through PCR screening and gene sequencing. From an ecological viewpoint, the amounts of ehrlichiae in a single tick were found to be variable.
Ehrlichia species are obligatory intracellular bacteria transmitted by arthropods, and some of these species cause febrile diseases in humans and livestock. Genome sequencing has only been performed with cultured Ehrlichia species, and the taxonomic status of such ehrlichiae has been estimated by core genome-based phylogenetic analysis. However, many uncultured ehrlichiae exist in nature throughout the world, including Japan. This study aimed to conduct a molecular-based taxonomic and ecological characterization of uncultured Ehrlichia species or genotypes from ticks in Japan. We first surveyed 616 Haemaphysalis ticks by p28-PCR screening and analyzed five additional housekeeping genes (16S rRNA, groEL, gltA, ftsZ, and rpoB) from 11 p28-PCR-positive ticks. Phylogenetic analyses of the respective genes showed similar trees but with some differences. Furthermore, we found that V1 in the V1-V9 regions of Ehrlichia 16S rRNA exhibited the greatest variability. From an ecological viewpoint, the amounts of ehrlichiae in a single tick were found to equal approx. 6.3E+3 to 2.0E+6. Subsequently, core-partial-RGGFR-based phylogenetic analysis based on the concatenated sequences of the five housekeeping loci revealed six Ehrlichia genotypes, which included potentially new Ehrlichia species. Thus, our approach contributes to the taxonomic profiling and ecological quantitative analysis of uncultured or unidentified Ehrlichia species or genotypes worldwide.
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