Query: NC_016929:55974 Rickettsia canadensis str. CA410 chromosome, complete genome
Lineage: Rickettsia canadensis; Rickettsia; Rickettsiaceae; Rickettsiales; Proteobacteria; Bacteria
General Information: 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. This organism was originally thought to be a member of the typhus group of Rickettsiales, however, it is now thought to represent a distict group with the rickettsia.
Subject: NC_007797:411630 Anaplasma phagocytophilum HZ, complete genome
Lineage: Anaplasma phagocytophilum; Anaplasma; Anaplasmataceae; Rickettsiales; Proteobacteria; Bacteria
General Information: Isolated from a patient in New York, USA, in 1995. This organism is a tick-borne (Ixodesspp.) obligate intracellular pathogen that infects humans and causes human granulocytic anaplasmosis as well as infecting several other types of animals. This organism produces a number of pathogenic factors that aid virulence. These include specific adhesins for neutrophils, virulence factors that inhibit both phagosome-lysozome fusion and production of reactive oxygen species that would normally kill the bacterium. The bacterium also inhibits programmed cell death of the neutrophil (apoptosis) and induces expression of interleukin-8, which causes neutrophil chemotaxis, thereby increasing the spread of the bacterium throughout the host organism.