Yersinia pestis infection and laboratory conditions alter flea-associated bacterial communities.

ABSTRACT: We collected Oropsylla montana from rock squirrels, Spermophilus varigatus, and infected a subset of collected fleas with Yersinia pestis, the etiological agent of plague. We used bar-tagged DNA pyrosequencing to characterize bacterial communities of wild, uninfected controls and infected fleas. Bacterial communities within Y. pestis-infected fleas were substantially more similar to one another than communities within wild or control fleas, suggesting that infection alters the bacterial community in a directed manner such that specific bacterial lineages are severely reduced in abundance or entirely eliminated from the community. Laboratory conditions also significantly altered flea-associated bacterial communities relative to wild communities, but much less so than Y. pestis infection. Th

SUBMITTER: Jones RT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3526169 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature