@article {38161, title = {Comparative genomics of emerging human ehrlichiosis agents}, journal = {PLoS geneticsPLoS genetics}, volume = {2}, year = {2006}, note = {http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16482227?dopt=Abstract}, type = {10.1371/journal.pgen.0020021}, abstract = {Anaplasma (formerly Ehrlichia) phagocytophilum, Ehrlichia chaffeensis, and Neorickettsia (formerly Ehrlichia) sennetsu are intracellular vector-borne pathogens that cause human ehrlichiosis, an emerging infectious disease. We present the complete genome sequences of these organisms along with comparisons to other organisms in the Rickettsiales order. Ehrlichia spp. and Anaplasma spp. display a unique large expansion of immunodominant outer membrane proteins facilitating antigenic variation. All Rickettsiales have a diminished ability to synthesize amino acids compared to their closest free-living relatives. Unlike members of the Rickettsiaceae family, these pathogenic Anaplasmataceae are capable of making all major vitamins, cofactors, and nucleotides, which could confer a beneficial role in the invertebrate vector or the vertebrate host. Further analysis identified proteins potentially involved in vacuole confinement of the Anaplasmataceae, a life cycle involving a hematophagous vector, vertebrate pathogenesis, human pathogenesis, and lack of transovarial transmission. These discoveries provide significant insights into the biology of these obligate intracellular pathogens.}, keywords = {Animals, Biotin, DNA Repair, Ehrlichia, Ehrlichiosis, Genome, Genomics, HUMANS, Models, Biological, Phylogeny, Rickettsia, Ticks}, author = {Dunning Hotopp, Julie C. and Lin, Mingqun and Madupu, Ramana and Crabtree, Jonathan and Angiuoli, Samuel V. and Eisen, Jonathan A. and Eisen, Jonathan and Seshadri, Rekha and Ren, Qinghu and Wu, Martin and Utterback, Teresa R. and Smith, Shannon and Lewis, Matthew and Khouri, Hoda and Zhang, Chunbin and Niu, Hua and Lin, Quan and Ohashi, Norio and Zhi, Ning and Nelson, William and Brinkac, Lauren M. and Dodson, Robert J. and Rosovitz, M. J. and Sundaram, Jaideep and Daugherty, Sean C. and Davidsen, Tanja and Durkin, Anthony S. and Gwinn, Michelle and Haft, Daniel H. and J. Selengut and Sullivan, Steven A. and Zafar, Nikhat and Zhou, Liwei and Benahmed, Faiza and Forberger, Heather and Halpin, Rebecca and Mulligan, Stephanie and Robinson, Jeffrey and White, Owen and Rikihisa, Yasuko and Tettelin, Herv{\'e}} }