Chlamydia-Like Organisms (CLOs) in Finnish Ixodes ricinus Ticks and Human Skin
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Jani J. Sormunen; Mirja Puolakkainen; Eero J. Vesterinen; Kati Hokynar; Veera Timonen; Annamari Ranki; Esa K. Partio; Jaana Panelius; Thomas M. Lilley
- Source
- Microorganisms; Volume 4; Issue 3; Pages: 28
Microorganisms, Vol 4, Iss 3, p 28 (2016)
- Subject
- 0301 basic medicine
Microbiology (medical)
skin
Ixodes ricinus
030106 microbiology
Human skin
Tick
phylogeny
Microbiology
ticks
03 medical and health sciences
Phylogenetics
Virology
parasitic diseases
16S rRNA
lcsh:QH301-705.5
Gene
Chlamydia-like organisms (CLOs)
Chlamydiales
biology
ta1184
ta1183
PCR
bacterial infections and mycoses
biology.organism_classification
16S ribosomal RNA
Flavivirus
030104 developmental biology
lcsh:Biology (General)
3111 Biomedicine
- Language
- ISSN
- 2076-2607
Ticks carry several human pathogenic microbes including Borreliae and Flavivirus causing tick-born encephalitis. Ticks can also carry DNA of Chlamydia-like organisms (CLOs). The purpose of this study was to investigate the occurrence of CLOs in ticks and skin biopsies taken from individuals with suspected tick bite. DNA from CLOs was detected by pan-Chlamydiales-PCR in 40% of adult ticks from southwestern Finland. The estimated minimal infection rate for nymphs and larvae (studied in pools) was 6% and 2%, respectively. For the first time, we show CLO DNA also in human skin as 68% of all skin biopsies studied contained CLO DNA as determined through pan-Chlamydiales-PCR. Sequence analyses based on the 16S rRNA gene fragment indicated that the sequences detected in ticks were heterogeneous, representing various CLO families; whereas the majority of the sequences from human skin remained “unclassified Chlamydiales” and might represent a new family-level lineage. CLO sequences detected in four skin biopsies were most closely related to “uncultured Chlamydial bacterium clones from Ixodes ricinus ticks” and two of them were very similar to CLO sequences from Finnish ticks. These results suggest that CLO DNA is present in human skin; ticks carry CLOs and could potentially transmit CLOs to humans.