[Biochemical and genetical study of Rickettsia]

The review deals with the phenomenology in the studies on characteristics of surface antigenic and immunogenic structures of Rickettsia, their cellular membranes, the processes of metabolic cooperation and interaction with the host cells, and the structure of Rickettsia genome. The data on active antigenic and immunogenic proteins distribution in inner and outer membranes and on osmotically active functioning cellular membrane, including the specific substrate carriers, are discussed. The materials, are presented on the specific ADP-ATP transport system, slightly different from the mitochondrial one, in evidence that Rickettsia utilize ATP in two pathways: endogenous and exogenous. The metabolic regulatory processes, controlled by adenine nucleotides are discussed that could be used as a means of fitting to constantly changing conditions of Rickettsia ecological niche. The Rickettsia deficiency in AMP catabolism enzyme could be used for allosteric-regulation of citrate synthase, the key enzyme in the Krebs cycle. The data on the mol mass of Rickettsia DNA (1 x 10(9)) and the characteristics of plasmids are presented. In conclusion new data on molecular cloning of Rickettsia genes in vector plasmids and the restriction analysis of specific DNA sequences are discussed.