ArticlePLoS neglected tropical diseases2025
Mitogenomics of the tropical bont tick Amblyomma variegatum reveals vertical and horizontal transmission of Rickettsia africae.
Article in PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe tropical bont tick Amblyomma variegatum, which is widespread in Africa and the Caribbean islands, is of both medical and veterinary importance as the principal vector of intracellular bacterial pathogens Ehrlichia ruminantium, causing heartwater in animals, and Rickettsia africae, causing African tick bite fever (ATBF) in humans. This tick species is highly invasive and has been reported to expand its geographical distribution as well as host range. Rickettsia africae is also recognized as a common endosymbiont in A. variegatum, but its transmission dynamics within this tick population remain poorly understood. METHODOLOGY: To investigate the co-phylogenetic patterns between A. variegatum and R. africae, we sequenced the complete mitogenomes of A. variegatum and performed multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) of six housekeeping genes of R. africae. The resulting sequence data were used to examine the hypothesis that R. africae is predominantly transmitted vertically within A. variegatum populations, which would lead to congruent phylogenies between vector and pathogen.
resultsThere was geographical population sub-structuring in the mitogenomes of A. variegatum. The prevalence of R. africae in the examined ticks was 100%. The tanglegram showed non-strict co-cladogenesis between A. variegatum and R. africae. Furthermore, the Procrustes Application to Cophylogenetic (PACo) analysis and residuals of vector-pathogen associations showed no statistically significant association between A. variegatum and R. africae genotypes.
conclusionsThis study was the first to examine the spread of pathogenic/endosymbiotic bacterium R. africae in the A. variegatum populations using a mitogenomic approach. The results support both vertical and horizontal transmission of R. africae within A. variegatum. These findings also highlight the potential of R. africae to adapt to multiple animal species, which may complicate efforts to control it as a human pathogen.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.