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Rickettsia prowazekii
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Bacteria;
Phylum:	Proteobacteria;
Class:	Alpha Proteobacteria;
Order:	Rickettsiales;
Family:	Rickettsiaceae;
Genus:	Rickettsia;
Species:	R. prowazekii;
Binomial name
	Rickettsia prowazekii; da Rocha-Lima, 1916

Rickettsia prowazekii is a species of gram negative, bacillus, obligate intracellular parasitic, aerobic bacteria that is the etiologic agent of epidemic typhus, transmitted in the faeces of lice. In North America, the main reservoir for R. prowazekii is the flying squirrel. R. prowazekii is often surrounded by a protein microcapsular layer and slime layer; the natural life cycle of the bacterium generally involves a vertebrate and an invertebrate host, usually an arthropod, typically the human body louse. A form of R. prowazekii that exists in the feces of arthropods remains stably infective for months. R. prowazekii also appears to be the closest free-living relative of mitochondria, based on genome sequencing.

[edit] History

[edit] Discovery

Henrique da Rocha Lima, a Brazilian doctor, discovered this bacterium in 1916.

[edit] Evolutionary History

The genome of R. prowazekii provides great insight, especially to the origin of modern-day mitochondria. The R. prowazekii is not only the closest known relative to mitochondria through genome sequencing, as it also has a highly derived genome like that of mitochondria. Since the two are so similar, they likely have a very similar evolutionary history. It is commonly believed that mitochondria evolved through endosymbiosis, and R. prowazekii could have evolved in a similar way. It is even possible for a bacterium similar to R. prowazekii to have been the initiator of endosymbiosis.

[edit] Treatment

Vaccines against R. prowazekii were developed in the 1940s, and were highly effective in reducing typhus deaths among U.S. soldiers during World War II. Immunity following recovery from infection with, or by immunization against, R. prowazekii is lifelong in most cases. However, R. prowazekii can establish a latent infection, which can reactivate after years or decades (referred to as Brill-Zinsser disease). Treatment with tetracycline antibiotics is usually successful.

[edit] References

NIAID Biodefense Research Agenda for Category B and C Priority PathogensPDF (1.44 MiB) National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. NIH Publication No. 03-5315. (January 2003).
R. prowazekii Genome Sequencing

[edit] External links

Rickettsia prowazekii str. Madrid E (from PATRIC, the PathoSystems Resource Integration Center, a NIAID Bioinformatics Resource Center)

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