Jpn. J. Infect. Dis., 65 (1), 79-83, 2012
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Gaowa1, Wuritu1, Dongxing Wu1, Yuko Yoshikawa1, Norio Ohashi1*, Fumihiko Kawamori2, Kanji Sugiyama2, Masayoshi Ohtake3, Masataka Ohashi3, Seigo Yamamoto4, Tomokazu Kitano4, Nobuhiro Takada5, and Hiroki Kawabata6
1Laboratory of Microbiology, Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, Graduate School of Nutritional and Environmental Sciences, Global Center of Excellence Program, University of Shizuoka, Shizuoka 422-8526; 2Department of Microbiology, Shizuoka Institute of Environment and Hygiene, Shizuoka 420-8637; 3Forestry and Forest Products Research Center, Shizuoka Prefectural Research Institute of Agriculture and Forestry, Shizuoka 434-0016; 4Department of Microbiology, Miyazaki Prefectural Institute for Public Health and Environment, Miyazaki 889-2155; 5Department of Immunology and Medical Zoology, Faculty of Medical Science, University of Fukui, Fukui 910- 1193; and 6Department of Bacteriology I, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo 162-8640, Japan
(Received September 22, 2011. Accepted November 7, 2011)
*Corresponding author: Mailing address: Laboratory of Microbiology, Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, School of Food and Nutritional Sciences, Graduate School of Nutritional and Environmental Sciences, University of Shizuoka, 52-1 Yada, Suruga-ku, Shizuoka 422-8526, Japan. Tel & Fax: +81-54-264-5553, E-mail: このメールアドレスはスパムボットから保護されています。閲覧するにはJavaScriptを有効にする必要があります。
SUMMARY: Anaplasma phagocytophilum is an obligate intracellular bacterium and causes a febrile illness in humans and livestock. In nature, this bacterium is sustained in a tick-mammal cycle. Several p44/msp2-related genes are expressed from a single expression locus by gene conversion. In this study, we obtained 119 cDNA sequences of p44/msp2 transcripts from A. phagocytophilum in 6 Haemaphysalis ticks and 3 wild sika deer (Cervus nippon) in Japan. These 119 sequences were classified into 36 different variant sequences based on their similarities. The 36 cDNA sequences were phylogenetically grouped into 2 major clusters—tick- and deer-associated. The tick-associated sequences were further classified into 4 distinct subclusters, suggesting that A. phagocytophilum in ticks seems to selectively express specific p44/msp2 transcripts, such as the transcripts in the 4 subclusters that were closely related to previously identified p44/msp2 genes. The deer-associated sequences were also grouped into 4 subclusters, but these transcripts were probably more diverse than the transcripts derived from ticks. This might be due to the relatively nonselective expression of p44/msp2 in deer or the strain differences in A. phagocytophilum from ticks and deer in separate geographic regions or both. Thus, this study may contribute to the understanding of A. phagocytophilum p44/msp2 expression in nature in Japan.
