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Updated: Jun 1, 2026

An Electroporation Method to Transform Rickettsia spp. with a Fluorescent Protein-Expressing Shuttle Vector in Tick Cell Lines
Published on: October 11, 2022
Transmission electron microscopy as a tool for exploring bacterial proteins: model of RickA in Rickettsia conorii
Manohari Vellaiswamy1, Bernard Campagna, Didier Raoult
1Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes, URMITE, CNRS UMR 6236-IRD 198, Faculté de Médecine, IFR48, Università de la Méditerranée, Marseille, France.
Abstract:
Rickettsia conorii, the etiologic agent of Mediterranean spotted fever, belongs to the spotted fever group of Rickettsia. It is an obligate intracellular bacterium that grows within the cytoplasm of its eukaryotic host cells. It is motile in the cytoplasm of infected cells and RickA is reported as critical protein in this aspect. However, the subcellular localization of RickA remains uncertain. We describe a simple method allowing RickA protein to be localized by immunofluorescence assay (IFA) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). By using IFA we showed the global expression of surface protein RickA in R. conorii organisms. The TEM results showed that RickA is widely expressed over the entire bacterial surface of R. conorii.
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