Ehrlichia ruminantium

Ehrlichia ruminantium (formerly Cowdria ruminantium) is a tick-borne rickettsial pathogen that infects cattle, causing heartwater or cowdriosis. The disease is widespread in most of sub-Saharan Africa and on several islands in the Caribbean, where it is a serious constraint to animal production.

The Sanger Institute performed some of the initial shotgun sequencing for this project, in collaboration with Dr. F. Jongejan and Dr. E. de Vries of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology of Utrecht University and Dr. B. Allsopp of the University of Pretoria Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases, South Africa. This was supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research.

Published Genome Data

The sequencing was completed, and the genomic analysis performed, by Dr. B. Allsopp of the University of Pretoria Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases, South Africa.

The fully annotated genome sequence is available from the EMBL/GenBank databases with accession number CR767821.

Bibliography

The genome of the heartwater agent Ehrlichia ruminantium contains multiple tandem repeats of actively variable copy number.

Collins NE, Liebenberg J, de Villiers EP, Brayton KA, Louw E, Pretorius A, Faber FE, van Heerden H, Josemans A, van Kleef M, Steyn HC, van Strijp MF, Zweygarth E, Jongejan F, Maillard JC, Berthier D, Botha M, Joubert F, Corton CH, Thomson NR, Allsopp MT and Allsopp BA

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2005;102;3;838-43

PUBMED: 15637156; PMC: 545511; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0406633102

Data Use Statement

This sequencing centre plans on publishing the completed and annotated sequences in a peer-reviewed journal as soon as possible. Permission of the principal investigator should be obtained before publishing analyses of the sequence/open reading frames/genes on a chromosome or genome scale. See our data sharing policy.

Sequencing enquiries

Please address all sequencing enquiries to: pathinfo@sanger.ac.uk