Bartonella quintana deploys host and vector temperature-specific transcriptomes.

ABSTRACT: The bacterial pathogen Bartonella quintana is passed between humans by body lice. B. quintana has adapted to both the human host and body louse vector niches, producing persistent infection with high titer bacterial loads in both the host (up to 10(5) colony-forming units [CFU]/ml) and vector (more than 10(8) CFU/ml). Using a novel custom microarray platform, we analyzed bacterial transcription at temperatures corresponding to the host (37°C) and vector (28°C), to probe for temperature-specific and growth phase-specific transcriptomes. We observed that transcription of 7% (93 genes) of the B. quintana genome is modified in response to change in growth phase, and that 5% (68 genes) of the genome is temperature-responsive. Among these transcriptional changes in response to temperature shift

SUBMITTER: Abromaitis S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3595295 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature