About Coxiella Burnetii

Coxiella burnetii is a strict intracellular bacterium with potential as a bioterrorism agent.
To characterize different isolates of C. burnetii at the molecular level, we performed multispacer sequence typing (MST). MST is based on intergenic region sequencing. These regions are potentially variable since they are subject to lower selection pressure than the adjacent genes. We screened 68 spacers in 14 isolates and selected the 10 that exhibited the most variation. These spacers were then tested in 159 additional isolates obtained from different geographic areas or different hosts or were implicated in different manifestations of human disease caused by C. burnetii. The sequence analysis yielded 30 different allelic combinations. Phylogenic analysis showed 3 major clusters. MST allows easy comparison and exchange of results obtained in different laboratories and could be a useful tool for identifying bacterial strains.

Publication

• 2005-08-01Coxiella burnetii GenotypingGlazunova O, Roux V, Freylikman O, Sekeyova Z, Fournous G, Tyczka J, Tokarevich N, Kovacova E, Marrie TJ, Raoult D
• 2011-10-25Genomotyping of Coxiella burnetii using microarrays reveals a conserved genomotype for hard tick isolatesLeroy Q, Armougom F, Barbry P, Raoult D
• 2013-03-01Q fever and pregnancy: disease, prevention, and strain specificityAngelakis E, Million M, Damato F, Rouli L, Richet H, Stein A, Rolain JM, Raoult D