Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-5229
Authors: Langenwalder, Denis B.
Schmidt, Sabine
Silaghi, Cornelia
Skuballa, Jasmin
Pantchev, Nikola
Matei, Ioana A.
Mihalca, Andrei D.
Gilli, Urs
Zajkowska, Joanna
Ganter, Martin
Hoffman, Tove
Salaneck, Erik
Petrovec, Miroslav
Loewenich, Friederike D. von
Title: The absence of the drhm gene is not a marker for human‑pathogenicity in European Anaplasma phagocytophilum strains
Online publication date: 26-Oct-2020
Year of first publication: 2020
Language: english
Abstract: Background: Anaplasma phagocytophilum is a Gram-negative obligate intracellular bacterium that replicates in neutrophil granulocytes. It is transmitted by ticks of the Ixodes ricinus complex and causes febrile illness in humans and animals. The geographical distribution of A. phagocytophilum spans the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia. However, human disease predominantly occurs in North America but is infrequently reported from Europe and Asia. In North American strains, the absence of the drhm gene has been proposed as marker for pathogenicity in humans whereas no information on the presence or absence of the drhm gene was available for A. phagocytophilum strains circulating in Europe. Therefore, we tested 511 European and 21 North American strains for the presence of drhm and compared the results to two other typing methods: multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and ankA-based typing. Results: Altogether, 99% (478/484) of the analyzable European and 19% (4/21) of the North American samples from different hosts were drhm-positive. Regarding the strains from human granulocytic anaplasmosis cases, 100% (35/35) of European origin were drhm-positive and 100% (14/14) of North American origin were drhm-negative. Human strains from North America and Europe were both part of MLST cluster 1. North American strains from humans belonged to ankA gene clusters 11 and 12 whereas European strains from humans were found in ankA gene cluster 1. However, the North American ankA gene clusters 11 and 12 were highly identical at the nucleotide level to the European cluster 1 with 97.4% and 95.2% of identity, respectively. Conclusions: The absence of the drhm gene in A. phagocytophilum does not seem to be associated with pathogenicity for humans per se, because all 35 European strains of human origin were drhm-positive. The epidemiological differences between North America and Europe concerning the incidence of human A. phagocytophilum infection are not explained by strain divergence based on MLST and ankA gene-based typing. Keywords: Anaplasma phagocytophilum, ankA, APH_0919, APH_0922, Asia, drhm, Europe, Human, Multilocus sequence typing (MLST), North America, Pathogenicity
DDC: 610 Medizin
610 Medical sciences
Institution: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Department: FB 04 Medizin
Place: Mainz
ROR: https://ror.org/023b0x485
DOI: http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-5229
Version: Published version
Publication type: Zeitschriftenaufsatz
License: CC BY
Information on rights of use: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Journal: Parasites & vectors
13
Pages or article number: Art. 238
Publisher: BioMed Central
Publisher place: London
Issue date: 2020
Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13071-020-04116-z
Publisher DOI: 10.1186/s13071-020-04116-z
Appears in collections:JGU-Publikationen

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