Ehrlichia canis
Classification
Higher order taxa Bacteria; Proteobacteria; Alphaproteobacteria; Ricketsiales; Anaplasmataceae; Ehrlichia
Genus Ehrlichia Canis
Description and significance
Ehrlichia Canis is a "small obligately intracellular, tick-transmitted, gram-negative, {alpha}-proteobacterium" transmitted by the brown dog tick, Rhipicephalus sanguineus. It resides as a microcolony inside a "membrane-lined intracellular vacuole, primarily within monocytes and macrophages of mammalian hosts". E. canis was first discovered in Algeria in 1935 and has now been known to have spread all over the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia. Infected dogs that are not treated can become asymptomatic carriers of the disease for years and eventually die from massive hemhorrage. Little is understood about the pathogenesis of canine and human ehrlichioses so the E. canis genome has been sequenced for more information critical for the development of effective vaccines. The complete genome was sequenced by the Joint Genome Institute by using a combination of 3-kb, 8-kb, and fosmid (40-kb) libraries.
Genome Structure
