Molecular detection of Bartonella henselae DNA in the dental pulp of 800-year-old French cats.
Bartonella species are responsible for chronic bacteremia in domestic cats, which raises a question about the antiquity of the relationship between Bartonella species and cats that act as reservoirs for the organism. The sequencing of Bartonella pap31 and groEL genes from the dental pulp of cats dating from the 13th to 16th centuries identified the presence of B. henselae genotype Houston; the observation of a unique mutation in the results of PCR assays for Bartonella species ruled out modern DNA contamination of the dental pulp samples. We conclude that cats had bacteremia due to B. henselae 800 years ago.
La
Vu Dang
VD
Unité des Rickettsies, Faculté de Medecine, Université de la Méditerranée, Marseille, France.
Clavel
Benoît
B
Lepetz
Sébastien
S
Aboudharam
Gérard
G
Raoult
Didier
D
Drancourt
Michel
M
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D016470:Bacteremia / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D001474:Bartonella Infections / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary; D018416:Bartonella henselae / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001483:Base Sequence; D002371:Cat Diseases; D002415:Cats; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D003782:Dental Pulp / Q000382:microbiology*; D005602:France; D009154:Mutation; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial