Novel Chlamydiales genotypes identified in ticks from Australian wildlife

Delaney Burnard; Haylee J Weaver; Amber Gillett; Joanne Loader; Cheyne Flanagan; Adam Polkinghorne

doi:10.1186/s13071-017-1994-y

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Novel Chlamydiales genotypes identified in ticks from Australian wildlife

Journal article

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Novel Chlamydiales genotypes identified in ticks from Australian wildlife

Delaney Burnard, Haylee J Weaver, Amber Gillett, Joanne Loader, Cheyne Flanagan and Adam Polkinghorne

Parasites & vectors, Vol.10, 46

2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13071-017-1994-y

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Abstract

chlamydia

chlamydia-like organisms

ticks

marsupials

wildlife

transmission

vector

Australia

Background: Members of the order Chlamydiales are known for their potential as human and veterinary bacterial pathogens. Despite this recognition, epidemiological factors such as routes of transmission are yet to be fully defined. Ticks are well known vectors for many other infections with several reports recently describing the presence of bacteria in the order Chlamydiales in these arthropods. Australian wildlife are hosts to an extensive range of tick species. Evidence is also growing that the marsupial hosts these ticks parasitise can also be infected by a number of bacteria in the order Chlamydiales, with at least one species, Chlamydia pecorum, posing a significant conservation threat. In the current study, we investigated the presence and identity of Chlamydiales in 438 ixodid ticks parasitizing wildlife in Australia by screening with a pan-Chlamydiales specific targeting the 16S rRNA gene. Results: Pan-Chlamydiales specific PCR assays confirmed the common presence of Chlamydiales in Australian ticks parasitising a range of native wildlife. Interestingly, we did not detect any Chlamydiaceae, including C. pecorum, the ubiquitous pathogen of the koala. Instead, the Chlamydiales diversity that could be resolved indicated that Australian ticks carry at least six novel Chlamydiales genotypes. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA sequences (663 bp) of these novel Chlamydiales suggests that three of these genotypes are associated with the Simkaniaceae and putatively belong to three distinct novel strains of Fritschea spp. and three genotypes are related to the "Ca. Rhabdochlamydiaceae" and putatively belong to a novel genus, Rhabdochlamydia species and strain, respectively. Conclusions: Sequence results suggest Australian wildlife ticks harbour a range of unique Chlamydiales bacteria that belong to families previously identified in a range of arthropod species. The results of this work also suggest that it is unlikely that arthropods act as vectors of pathogenic members of the family Chlamydiaceae, including C. pecorum, in Australian wildlife. The biology of novel Chlamydiales identified in arthropods remain unknown. The pathogenic role of the novel Chlamydiales identified in this study and the role that ticks may play in their transmission needs to be explored further.

Details

Title: Novel Chlamydiales genotypes identified in ticks from Australian wildlife
Authors: Delaney Burnard (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering
Haylee J Weaver (Author) - Australian Government
Amber Gillett (Author) - Australian Zoo Wildlife Hospital
Joanne Loader (Author) - Endeavour Veterinary Ecology Pty Ltd
Cheyne Flanagan (Author) - Port Macquarie Koala Hospital
Adam Polkinghorne (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering
Publication details: Parasites & vectors, Vol.10, 46; 10
Publisher: BioMed Central Ltd.
Date published: 2017
DOI: 10.1186/s13071-017-1994-y
ISSN: 1756-3305
Copyright note: Copyright © The Author(s). 2017 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Organisation Unit: School of Science and Engineering - Legacy; Information Technology; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Sustainability Research Cluster
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99450340102621
Output Type: Journal article

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Web Of Science research areas: Parasitology; Tropical Medicine

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