title: Ehrlichia ruminantium: genomic and evolutionary features.
abstract: Ehrlichia ruminantium is the causative agent of heartwater, an important tick-borne disease of livestock in Africa and the Caribbean that threatens the American mainland. The genome sequences of three strains of E. ruminantium have recently been published, revealing the presence of specific features related to genomic plasticity. E. ruminantium strains have traces of active genomic modifications, such as high substitution rates, truncated genes and the presence of pseudogenes and many tandem repeats. The most specific feature is the presence in all Ehrlichia of independent long-period tandem repeats, which are associated with expansion or contraction of intergenic regions.
authors.affiliation: Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (Cirad), TA30/G, Campus International de Baillarguet, 34398 Montpellier Cedex 05, France. roger.frutos@cirad.fr
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Frutos
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Viari
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Vachiery
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Boyer
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Martinez
mesh_terms: D017124:Conserved Sequence; D021901:DNA, Intergenic; D016995:Ehrlichia ruminantium / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016296:Mutagenesis / Q000235:genetics*; D013045:Species Specificity; D020080:Tandem Repeat Sequences
chemical_list: D021901:DNA, Intergenic