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Rickettsiaceae | |
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Rickettsia rickettsii (red dots) in the cell of a deer tick | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Bacteria |
Phylum: | Pseudomonadota |
Class: | Alphaproteobacteria |
Order: | Rickettsiales |
Family: | Rickettsiaceae Pinkerton 1936 (Approved Lists 1980) |
Tribes and genera | |
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The Rickettsiaceae are a family of bacteria. The genus Rickettsia is the most prominent genus within the family. The bacteria that eventually formed the mitochondrion (an organelle in eukaryotic cells) is believed to have originated from this family. Most human pathogens in this family are in genus Rickettsia. They spend part of their lifecycle in the bodies of arthropods such as ticks or lice, and are then transmitted to humans or other mammals by the bite of the arthropod. It contains Gram-negative bacteria, very sensitive to environmental exposure, thus is adapted to obligate intracellular infection. Rickettsia rickettsii is considered the prototypical infectious organism in the group.
Comparative genomic analysis has identified three proteins, RP030, RP187 and RP192, which are uniquely found in members of the family Rickettsiaceae and serve as molecular markers for this family. [2] In addition, conserved signature indels in a number of proteins including a four-amino-acid insert in transcription repair coupling factor Mfd, a 10-amino-acid insert in ribosomal protein L19, one-amino-acid inserts each in the FtsZ protein and the major sigma factor 70, and a one-amino-acid deletion in exonuclease VII protein that are specific for the Rickettsiaceae species have been identified. [3]
Schematic ribosomal RNA phylogeny of Alphaproteobacteria | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The cladogram of Rickettsidae has been inferred by Ferla et al. [4] from the comparison of 16S + 23S ribosomal RNA sequences. |
Pseudomonadota is a major phylum of Gram-negative bacteria. The renaming of several prokaryote phyla in 2021, including Pseudomonadota, remains controversial among microbiologists, many of whom continue to use the earlier name Proteobacteria, of long standing in the literature. The phylum Proteobacteria includes a wide variety of pathogenic genera, such as Escherichia, Salmonella, Vibrio, Yersinia, Legionella, and many others. Others are free-living (non-parasitic) and include many of the bacteria responsible for nitrogen fixation.
Rickettsia is a genus of nonmotile, gram-negative, nonspore-forming, highly pleomorphic bacteria that may occur in the forms of cocci, bacilli, or threads. The term "rickettsia" has nothing to do with rickets ; the bacterial genus Rickettsia instead was named after Howard Taylor Ricketts, in honor of his pioneering work on tick-borne spotted fever.
The Aquificota phylum is a diverse collection of bacteria that live in harsh environmental settings. The name Aquificota was given to this phylum based on an early genus identified within this group, Aquifex, which is able to produce water by oxidizing hydrogen. They have been found in springs, pools, and oceans. They are autotrophs, and are the primary carbon fixers in their environments. These bacteria are Gram-negative, non-spore-forming rods. They are true bacteria as opposed to the other inhabitants of extreme environments, the Archaea.
The Chloroflexia are a class of bacteria in the phylum Chloroflexota. Chloroflexia are typically filamentous, and can move about through bacterial gliding. It is named after the order Chloroflexales.
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The Rickettsiales, informally called rickettsias, are an order of small Alphaproteobacteria. They are obligate intracellular parasites, and some are notable pathogens, including Rickettsia, which causes a variety of diseases in humans, and Ehrlichia, which causes diseases in livestock. Another genus of well-known Rickettsiales is the Wolbachia, which infect about two-thirds of all arthropods and nearly all filarial nematodes. Genetic studies support the endosymbiotic theory according to which mitochondria and related organelles developed from members of this group.
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Fibrobacterota is a small bacterial phylum which includes many of the major rumen bacteria, allowing for the degradation of plant-based cellulose in ruminant animals. Members of this phylum were categorized in other phyla. The genus Fibrobacter was removed from the genus Bacteroides in 1988.
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Alphaproteobacteria is a class of bacteria in the phylum Pseudomonadota. The Magnetococcales and Mariprofundales are considered basal or sister to the Alphaproteobacteria. The Alphaproteobacteria are highly diverse and possess few commonalities, but nevertheless share a common ancestor. Like all Proteobacteria, its members are gram-negative and some of its intracellular parasitic members lack peptidoglycan and are consequently gram variable.
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