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Zurita A, Trujillo I, Cutillas C. New records of pathogenic bacteria in different species of fleas collected from domestic and peridomestic animals in Spain. A potential zoonotic threat? Comp Immunol Microbiol Infect Dis 2024; 107:102153. [PMID: 38460359 DOI: 10.1016/j.cimid.2024.102153] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2023] [Revised: 02/25/2024] [Accepted: 02/28/2024] [Indexed: 03/11/2024]
Abstract
Climate change is causing many vectors of infectious diseases to expand their geographic distribution as well as the pathogens they transmit are also conditioned by temperature for their multiplication. Within this context, it is worth highlighting the significant role that fleas can play as vectors of important pathogenic bacteria. For this purpose, our efforts focused on detecting and identifying a total of 9 bacterial genera (Rickettsia sp.; Bartonella sp.; Yersinia sp.; Wolbachia sp., Mycobacterium sp., Leishmania sp., Borrelia sp., Francisella sp. and Coxiella sp.) within fleas isolated from domestic and peridomestic animals in the southwestern region of Spain (Andalusia). Over a 19-months period, we obtained flea samples from dogs, cats and hedgehogs. A total of 812 fleas was collected for this study. Five different species were morphologically identified, including C. felis, C. canis, S. cuniculi, P. irritans, and A. erinacei. Wolbachia sp. was detected in all five species identified in our study which a total prevalence of 86%. Within Rickettsia genus, two different species, R. felis and R. asembonensis were mainly identified in C. felis and A. erinacei, respectively. On the other hand, our results revealed a total of 131 fleas testing positive for the presence of Bartonella sp., representing a prevalence rate of 16% for this genus identifying two species B. henselae and B. clarridgeiae. Lastly, both Y. pestis and L. infantum were detected in DNA of P. irritans and C. felis, respectively isolated from dogs. With these data we update the list of bacterial zoonotic agents found in fleas in Spain, emphasizing the need to continue conducting future experimental studies to assess and confirm the potential vectorial role of certain synanthropic fleas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonio Zurita
- Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Seville, Profesor García González 2, Seville 41012, Spain.
| | - Ignacio Trujillo
- Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Seville, Profesor García González 2, Seville 41012, Spain.
| | - Cristina Cutillas
- Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Seville, Profesor García González 2, Seville 41012, Spain.
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Beliavskaia A, Tan KK, Sinha A, Husin NA, Lim FS, Loong SK, Bell-Sakyi L, Carlow CKS, AbuBakar S, Darby AC, Makepeace BL, Khoo JJ. Metagenomics of culture isolates and insect tissue illuminate the evolution of Wolbachia, Rickettsia and Bartonella symbionts in Ctenocephalides spp. fleas. Microb Genom 2023; 9:mgen001045. [PMID: 37399133 PMCID: PMC10438800 DOI: 10.1099/mgen.0.001045] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2023] [Accepted: 05/16/2023] [Indexed: 07/05/2023] Open
Abstract
While fleas are often perceived simply as a biting nuisance and a cause of allergic dermatitis, they represent important disease vectors worldwide, especially for bacterial zoonoses such as plague (transmitted by rodent fleas) and some of the rickettsioses and bartonelloses. The cosmopolitan cat (Ctenocephalides felis ) and dog (Ctenocephalides canis ) fleas, as well as Ctenocephalides orientis (restricted to tropical and subtropical Asia), breed in human dwellings and are vectors of cat-scratch fever (caused by Bartonella spp.) and Rickettsia spp., including Rickettsia felis (agent of flea-borne spotted fever) and Rickettsia asembonensis , a suspected pathogen. These Rickettsia spp. are members of a phylogenetic clade known as the ‘transitional group’, which includes both human pathogens and arthropod-specific endosymbionts. The relatively depauperate flea microbiome can also contain other endosymbionts, including a diverse range of Wolbachia strains. Here, we present circularized genome assemblies for two C. orientis -derived pathogens (Bartonella clarridgeiae and R. asembonensis ) from Malaysia, a novel Wolbachia strain (w Cori), and the C. orientis mitochondrion; all were obtained by direct metagenomic sequencing of flea tissues. Moreover, we isolated two Wolbachia strains from Malaysian C. felis into tick cell culture and recovered circularized genome assemblies for both, one of which (w CfeF) is newly sequenced. We demonstrate that the three Wolbachia strains are representatives of different major clades (‘supergroups’), two of which appear to be flea-specific. These Wolbachia genomes exhibit unique combinations of features associated with reproductive parasitism or mutualism, including prophage WO, cytoplasmic incompatibility factors and the biotin operon of obligate intracellular microbes. The first circularized assembly for R. asembonensis includes a plasmid with a markedly different structure and gene content compared to the published plasmid; moreover, this novel plasmid was also detected in cat flea metagenomes from the USA. Analysis of loci under positive selection in the transitional group revealed genes involved in host–pathogen interactions that may facilitate host switching. Finally, the first B. clarridgeiae genome from Asia exhibited large-scale genome stability compared to isolates from other continents, except for SNPs in regions predicted to mediate interactions with the vertebrate host. These findings highlight the paucity of data on the genomic diversity of Ctenocephalides -associated bacteria and raise questions regarding how interactions between members of the flea microbiome might influence vector competence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandra Beliavskaia
- Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L3 5RF, UK
| | - Kim-Kee Tan
- Tropical Infectious Diseases Research & Education Centre (TIDREC), Higher Institution Centre of Excellence (HICoE), Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
| | - Amit Sinha
- New England Biolabs, Ipswich, Massachusetts, 01938, USA
| | - Nurul Aini Husin
- Tropical Infectious Diseases Research & Education Centre (TIDREC), Higher Institution Centre of Excellence (HICoE), Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
| | - Fang Shiang Lim
- Tropical Infectious Diseases Research & Education Centre (TIDREC), Higher Institution Centre of Excellence (HICoE), Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
| | - Shih Keng Loong
- Tropical Infectious Diseases Research & Education Centre (TIDREC), Higher Institution Centre of Excellence (HICoE), Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
| | - Lesley Bell-Sakyi
- Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L3 5RF, UK
| | | | - Sazaly AbuBakar
- Tropical Infectious Diseases Research & Education Centre (TIDREC), Higher Institution Centre of Excellence (HICoE), Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
| | - Alistair C. Darby
- Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L3 5RF, UK
| | - Benjamin L. Makepeace
- Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L3 5RF, UK
| | - Jing Jing Khoo
- Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L3 5RF, UK
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Dong L, Li Y, Yang C, Gong J, Zhu W, Huang Y, Kong M, Zhao L, Wang F, Lu S, Pu J, Yang J. Species-level microbiota of ticks and fleas from Marmota himalayana in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Front Microbiol 2023; 14:1188155. [PMID: 37415819 PMCID: PMC10320725 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1188155] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2023] [Accepted: 05/31/2023] [Indexed: 07/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Ticks and fleas, as blood-sucking arthropods, carry and transmit various zoonotic diseases. In the natural plague foci of China, monitoring of Yersinia pestis has been continuously conducted in Marmota himalayana and other host animals, whereas other pathogens carried by vectors are rarely concerned in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Methods In this study, we investigated the microbiota of ticks and fleas sampling from M. himalayana in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China by metataxonomics combined with metagenomic methods. Results By metataxonomic approach based on full-length 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing and operational phylogenetic unit (OPU) analyses, we described the microbiota community of ticks and fleas at the species level, annotated 1,250 OPUs in ticks, including 556 known species and 492 potentially new species, accounting for 48.50% and 41.71% of the total reads in ticks, respectively. A total of 689 OPUs were detected in fleas, consisting of 277 known species (40.62% of the total reads in fleas) and 294 potentially new species (56.88%). At the dominant species categories, we detected the Anaplasma phagocytophilum (OPU 421) and potentially pathogenic new species of Wolbachia, Ehrlichia, Rickettsia, and Bartonella. Using shotgun sequencing, we obtained 10 metagenomic assembled genomes (MAGs) from vector samples, including a known species (Providencia heimbachae DFT2), and six new species affliated to four known genera, i.e., Wolbachia, Mumia, Bartonella, and Anaplasma. By the phylogenetic analyses based on full-length 16S rRNA genes and core genes, we identified that ticks harbored pathogenic A. phagocytophilum. Moreover, these potentially pathogenic novel species were more closely related to Ehrlichia muris, Ehrlichia muris subsp. eauclairensis, Bartonella rochalimae, and Rickettsia limoniae, respectively. The OPU 422 Ehrlichia sp1 was most related to Ehrlichia muris and Ehrlichia muris subsp. eauclairensis. The OPU 230 Bartonella sp1 and Bartonella spp. (DTF8 and DTF9) was clustered with Bartonella rochalimae. The OPU 427 Rickettsia sp1 was clustered with Rickettsia limoniae. Discussion The findings of the study have advanced our understanding of the potential pathogen groups of vectors in marmot (Marmota himalayana) in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lingzhi Dong
- Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
- State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
| | - Yaben Li
- Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
- State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
| | - Caixin Yang
- Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
- State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
| | - Jian Gong
- Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
- State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
| | - Wentao Zhu
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
| | - Yuyuan Huang
- State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
| | - Mimi Kong
- Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
- State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
| | - Lijun Zhao
- Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
- State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
| | - Feifei Wang
- Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
- State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
| | - Shan Lu
- Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
- State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
- Research Units of Discovery of Unknown Bacteria and Function, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Ji Pu
- Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
- State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
| | - Jing Yang
- Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
- State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
- Research Units of Discovery of Unknown Bacteria and Function, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
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Mioduchowska M, Konecka E, Gołdyn B, Pinceel T, Brendonck L, Lukić D, Kaczmarek Ł, Namiotko T, Zając K, Zając T, Jastrzębski JP, Bartoszek K. Playing Peekaboo with a Master Manipulator: Metagenetic Detection and Phylogenetic Analysis of Wolbachia Supergroups in Freshwater Invertebrates. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:ijms24119400. [PMID: 37298356 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24119400] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2023] [Revised: 05/21/2023] [Accepted: 05/25/2023] [Indexed: 06/12/2023] Open
Abstract
The infamous "master manipulators"-intracellular bacteria of the genus Wolbachia-infect a broad range of phylogenetically diverse invertebrate hosts in terrestrial ecosystems. Wolbachia has an important impact on the ecology and evolution of their host with documented effects including induced parthenogenesis, male killing, feminization, and cytoplasmic incompatibility. Nonetheless, data on Wolbachia infections in non-terrestrial invertebrates are scarce. Sampling bias and methodological limitations are some of the reasons limiting the detection of these bacteria in aquatic organisms. In this study, we present a new metagenetic method for detecting the co-occurrence of different Wolbachia strains in freshwater invertebrates host species, i.e., freshwater Arthropoda (Crustacea), Mollusca (Bivalvia), and water bears (Tardigrada) by applying NGS primers designed by us and a Python script that allows the identification of Wolbachia target sequences from the microbiome communities. We also compare the results obtained using the commonly applied NGS primers and the Sanger sequencing approach. Finally, we describe three supergroups of Wolbachia: (i) a new supergroup V identified in Crustacea and Bivalvia hosts; (ii) supergroup A identified in Crustacea, Bivalvia, and Eutardigrada hosts, and (iii) supergroup E infection in the Crustacea host microbiome community.
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Affiliation(s)
- Monika Mioduchowska
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics and Biosystematics, Faculty of Biology, University of Gdansk, 80-308 Gdańsk, Poland
- Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Hydrobiology, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Lodz, 90-237 Łódź, Poland
- Department of Marine Plankton Research, Institute of Oceanography, University of Gdansk, 81-378 Gdynia, Poland
| | - Edyta Konecka
- Department of Microbiology, Institute of Experimental Biology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, 61-614 Poznań, Poland
| | - Bartłomiej Gołdyn
- Department of General Zoology, Institute of Environmental Biology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, 61-614 Poznań, Poland
| | - Tom Pinceel
- Animal Ecology, Global Change and Sustainable Development, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
- Centre for Environmental Management, University of the Free State, Potchefstroom 2520, South Africa
- Community Ecology Laboratory, Department of Biology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), 1050 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Luc Brendonck
- Animal Ecology, Global Change and Sustainable Development, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
- Water Research Group, Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom 2531, South Africa
| | - Dunja Lukić
- Department of Wetland Ecology, Estación Biológica de Doñana-CSIC, 41092 Sevilla, Spain
| | - Łukasz Kaczmarek
- Department of Animal Taxonomy and Ecology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, 61-614 Poznań, Poland
| | - Tadeusz Namiotko
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics and Biosystematics, Faculty of Biology, University of Gdansk, 80-308 Gdańsk, Poland
| | - Katarzyna Zając
- Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, 31-120 Kraków, Poland
| | - Tadeusz Zając
- Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, 31-120 Kraków, Poland
| | - Jan P Jastrzębski
- Department of Plant Physiology, Genetics and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, 10-719 Olsztyn, Poland
- Genetics and Biotechnology, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, 10-719 Olsztyn, Poland
| | - Krzysztof Bartoszek
- Department of Computer and Information Science, Division of Statistics and Machine Learning, Linköping University, SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden
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Konecka E. Fifty shades of bacterial endosymbionts and some of them still remain a mystery: Wolbachia and Cardinium in oribatid mites (Acari: Oribatida). J Invertebr Pathol 2022; 189:107733. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jip.2022.107733] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2021] [Revised: 02/11/2022] [Accepted: 02/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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Manoj RRS, Latrofa MS, Bezerra-Santos MA, Sgroi G, Samarelli R, Mendoza-Roldan JA, Otranto D. Molecular detection and characterization of the endosymbiont Wolbachia in the European hedgehog flea, Archaeopsylla erinacei. INFECTION, GENETICS AND EVOLUTION : JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR EPIDEMIOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONARY GENETICS IN INFECTIOUS DISEASES 2022; 97:105161. [PMID: 34843992 DOI: 10.1016/j.meegid.2021.105161] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2021] [Revised: 11/19/2021] [Accepted: 11/24/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Wolbachia, the endosymbiont of arthropods and onchocercid nematodes is present in many medically important insect species, being also considered for the indirect control of parasitic ones. Archaeopsylla erinacei is a flea species infesting hedgehogs acting as vector of Rickettsia felis, Bartonella henselae, and Rickettsia helvetica, thus having public health relevance. The Wolbachia surface protein (wsp) and 16S rRNA genes were used to determine the presence, prevalence and molecular typing of Wolbachia in this flea species collected in two regions of southern Italy. Of the 45 fleas tested (n = 16 males, 35.6%; n = 29 females, 64.4%), 43 (95.6%; 95% CI: 84.8-99.2) scored positive for Wolbachia, of which 15 (33.3%) and 28 (62.2%) were males and females, respectively. The sex-wise prevalence of this endosymbiont was almost equal in both sexes (males 93.8%; 95% CI: 69.5-99.7; females 96.7%; 95% CI: 83.1-99.8). Single locus sequence analysis (SLST) of Wolbachia revealed two sequence types for 16S rRNA gene, named as wAr_15227 and wAr_15234, which came from two different areas, equally distributed in male and female fleas, whilst only one sequence type was identified for wsp gene. The phylogenetic analysis placed the two 16S rRNA sequence types in paraphyletic clades belonging to the supergroup A and B, respectively. Whilst, the tree of wsp gene clustered the corresponding sequence in the same clade including those of Wolbachia supergroup A. In MLST analyses, both Wolbachia sequence types clustered in a monophyletic clade with Drosophila nikananu (wNik) and Drosophila sturtevanti (wStv) from supergroup A. ClonalFrame analysis revealed a recombination event in the wAr_15234 strain which came from Apulia region. Scientific knowledge of the presence/prevalence of Wolbachia among medically important fleas, may contribute to develop an alternative biological method for the vector control.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Giovanni Sgroi
- Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Bari, Valenzano, Italy
| | | | | | - Domenico Otranto
- Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Bari, Valenzano, Italy; Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran.
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