Pre_GI: SWBIT SVG BLASTN

Query: NC_013418:397956 Blattabacterium sp. (Periplaneta americana) str. BPLAN, complete

Lineage: Blattabacterium; Blattabacterium; Blattabacteriaceae; Flavobacteriales; Bacteroidetes; Bacteria

General Information: This organism is the endosymbiont of the American cockroach, Periplaneta americana. It is a Gram-negative maternally inherited bacteria which lives in specialized cells in the host's abdominal fat body. Phylogenetic analyses for the Blattabacterium-cockroach symbiosis supports the hypothesis of co-evolution between symbionts and hosts dating back to more than 140 million years ago. Cockroaches are omnivorous insects, often subsisting on a nitrogen-poor diet, and Blattabacterium have been hypothesized to participate in uric acid degradation, nitrogen assimilation, and nutrient provisioning. Genome sequencing and metabolic reconstruction shows that Blattabacterium can recycle nitrogen from urea and ammonia, which are uric acid degradation products, into glutamate, using urease and glutamate dehydrogenase, and thus would be able to provide its host with some essential amino acids, vitamins and cofactors. The bacterium relies on asparagine and glutamine supplied by the host; it may be able to make proline from arginine via the urea cycle.

Subject: NC_012633:169444 Rickettsia africae ESF-5, complete genome

Lineage: Rickettsia africae; Rickettsia; Rickettsiaceae; Rickettsiales; Proteobacteria; Bacteria

General Information: This organism was isolated from a cattle tick, Amblyomma variegatum, collected in Ethiopia. This organism, a member of the spotted fever group of the Rickettsiales, is found in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. Rickettsia africae causes a flu-like illness, characterized by a mild fever and severe headache, without the skin rash common to other spotted fever group Rickettsia species. Members of this genus, like other Rickettsial organisms such as Neorickettsia and Anaplasma, are obligate intracellular pathogens. In both groups, the bacteria are transmitted via an insect, usually a tick, to a host organism where they target endothelial cells and sometimes macrophages. They attach via an adhesin, rickettsial outer membrane protein A, and are internalized where they persist as cytoplasmically free organisms.