Pre_GI: SWBIT SVG BLASTP

Query: NC_017259:25400 Buchnera aphidicola str. Ua (Uroleucon ambrosiae) chromosome,

Lineage: Buchnera aphidicola; Buchnera; Enterobacteriaceae; Enterobacteriales; Proteobacteria; Bacteria

General Information: It is believed that the Buchnera provide the essential nutrients the host lacks. Besides a nutritional co-dependence, due to a co-existence of millions of years, Buchnera have lost the ability to produce cell surface components such as lipopolysaccharides. This makes for an obligate endosymbiont relationship between host and Buchnera. Buchnera are prokaryotic cells which belong to the gamma-Proteobacteria, closely related to the Enterobacteriaceae family. Phylogenetic studies using 16S rRNA indicate that the symbiotic relationship was established around 200-250 million years ago. Since Buchnera are closely related to Escherichia coli and Haemophilus influenzae, comparative genomic studies can shed light on the evolutionary mechanisms of intracellular endosymbiosis as well as the different underlying molecular basis between organisms with parasitic behavior and symbionts.

Subject: NC_000963:141500 Rickettsia prowazekii str. Madrid E, complete genome

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

General Information: This strain is an egg-passaged attentuated avirulent strain that has been used as a live vaccine and was originally isolated from a typhus patient in Madrid. This species is the causal agent of typhus. The bacteria are transmitted via an insect, usually a tick, to a host organism, in this case humans, 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. Transovarial transmission (from mother to offspring) occurs in the invertebrate host.