The putative haemobartonella that influences Plasmodium falciparum parasitaemia in squirrel monkeys is a haemotrophic mycoplasma.
Splenectomised squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) are increasingly being used as an experimental host for human malaria studies, notably for the assessment of candidate vaccines against Plasmodium falciparum blood-stage infection. Recently, S. sciureus monkeys in our primate-breeding colony were reported to be asymptomatic carriers of a putative Haemobartonella species. Patent haemobartonella infection is frequently activated following splenectomy, and may interfere with studies on the course of P. falciparum parasitaemia in these animals. Here, we show by 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis that this wall-less bacterium is not a rickettsia but, instead, is a haemotrophic mycoplasma. Haemotrophic mycoplasmas are a newly identified group of mycoplasmas that parasitise the surfaces of erythrocytes of a wide variety of vertebrate hosts.
Neimark
Harold
H
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Morse Institute for Molecular Biology, Campus Box 44, College of Medicine, State University of New York, Brooklyn, NY 11203, USA. neimah25@hscbklyn.edu
Barnaud
Antoine
A
Gounon
Pierre
P
Michel
Jean-Claude
JC
Contamin
Hugues
H
D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000382:microbiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005798:Genes, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D016778:Malaria, Falciparum / Q000150:complications*; D008992:Monkey Diseases / Q000382:microbiology / Q000469:parasitology; D009174:Mycoplasma / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009175:Mycoplasma Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D018512:Parasitemia / Q000150:complications*; D010802:Phylogeny; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D012453:Saimiri / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000469:parasitology*; D013156:Splenectomy
D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S