Description: Murine typhus is a febrile disease caused by the bacterium, Rickettsia typhi (R. typhi), and transmitted via infected fleas. This study investigated midgut responses of infected versus uninfected cat fleas (Ctenocephalides felis) by constructing cDNA libraries and examining transcript levels. Select C. felis serine proteases, GTPases and defense response genes were compared to identify differences in gene expression between the two states of infection. A total of 1152 transcripts from both libraries were sequenced, generating 906 high quality sequences, 472 from the uninfected and 434 from the infected midgut library.
Timeframe: 2009

Subject of Study

Subject Domain

Keywords

Restrictions: Unrestricted access
Instructions: Available from the GenBank site.; Access via Genbank
All sequences presented in Table S1 (supplementary material) were submitted as expressed sequence tags to GenBank. All trypsin, chymotrypsin, vesicular trafficking protein and defence response sequences were submitted as truncated or full-length sequences to GenBank. Accession numbers appear in the appropriate table.

Associated Publications

Data Type

Software Used

JMP8

Study Type

Empirical Research

Grant Support: AI017828/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

AI59118/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

AI043006/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Other Resources: supl1: Table S1 (Excel); (Table may be accessed via the PMC version of article, click on "Supplementary Materials")
Summary results from the bioinformatic analysis for both infected and uninfected flea midgut libraries. CFGF=Ctenocephalides felis gut fed library (uninfected library); CFGF-1=iC

supl2 (Word); (Document may be accessed via the PMC version of article, click on "Supplementary Materials")
Summary of results from the statistical analyses of the time-course gene expression studies

Article
4 Figures and 5 Tables (appear after reference section)

Analysis of Rickettsia typhi-Infected and Uninfected Cat Flea (Ctenocephalides felis) Midgut cDNA Libraries: Deciphering Molecular Pathways Involved in Host Response to R. typhi Infection