title: The putative haemobartonella that influences Plasmodium falciparum parasitaemia in squirrel monkeys is a haemotrophic mycoplasma.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: 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
authors.forename: Harold
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Neimark
authors.forename: Antoine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barnaud
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gounon
authors.forename: Jean-Claude
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Michel
authors.forename: Hugues
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Contamin
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S