Origins, Importance and Genetic Stability of the Prototype Strains Gilliam, Karp and Kato of Orientia tsutsugamushi.

ABSTRACT: Scrub typhus, a chigger-borne febrile illness, occurs primarily in countries of the Asia-Pacific rim and islands of the Western Pacific. The etiologic agent is the obligate intracellular rickettsial bacterium Orientia tsutsugamushi. Research on O. tsutsugamushi has relied on the availability of several prototype strains, which were isolated from human cases of scrub typhus in the 1940s and 1950s. We review the history of the three original, and most important, prototype strains, Gilliam, Karp and Kato, including information on their isolation, their culture history, their clinical characteristics, their importance within the research literature on scrub typhus, and recent advances in elucidating their molecular genomics. The importance of these strains to the research and dev

SUBMITTER: Kelly DJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6631653 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature