Bacterial microbiome of the chigger mite Leptotrombidium imphalum varies by life stage and infection with the scrub typhus pathogen Orientia tsutsugamushi.

ABSTRACT: Scrub typhus is a mites-borne rickettsiosis caused by the obligate intracellular Gram-negative bacterium Orientia tsutsugamushi. The disease is potentially life threatening and is prevalent in tropical Asia, islands of the western Pacific Ocean and northern Australia where an estimated one million cases occur annually. Orientia tsutsugamushi is transmitted by the bite of larval mites in the genus Leptotrombidium. In the present study, the composition of the microbiome in larvae, deutonymphs and adult males and females from laboratory colonies of L. imphalum that were infected as well as uninfected with O. tsutsugamushi were investigated by high-throughput sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. Notably, the bacterial microbiomes of infected adult females were dominated by sequences of O

SUBMITTER: Ponnusamy L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6283546 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature