A century of typhus, lice and Rickettsia.
At the beginning of the 20th century, it was discovered at the Pasteur Institute in Tunis that epidemic typhus is transmitted by the human body louse. The complete genome sequence of its causative agent, Rickettsia prowazekii, was determined at Uppsala University in Sweden at the end of the century. In this mini-review, we discuss insights gained from the genome sequence of this fascinating and deadly organism.
Andersson
J O
JO
Department of Molecular Evolution, Uppsala University, Evolutionary Biology Center, Sweden.
Andersson
S G
SG
D000818:Animals; D005602:France; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000235:genetics; D008003:Phthiraptera / Q000382:microbiology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D012283:Rickettsia prowazekii / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014438:Typhus, Epidemic Louse-Borne / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000266:history* / Q000382:microbiology