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| Kevin R. Macaluso, Ph.D., professor and Locke Distinguished Chair of Microbiology and Immunology, was among the collaborators of new research published that determined no two cat fleas have the same genome sequence. |
Research published this month by a collaboration of scientists of a chromosome-level assembly of the cat flea genome revealed rampant gene duplication and genome size plasticity.
In other words, the scientists discovered that no two cat fleas have the same genome sequence.
Project collaborators include Kevin R. Macaluso, Ph.D., University of South Alabama College of Medicine professor and Locke Distinguished Chair of Microbiology and Immunology.
The study was published online on June 19, 2020, by BMC Biology, a peer-reviewed international research journal.
Fleas are the small parasites of birds and mammals whose blood-feeding can transmit a variety of serious pathogens causing diseases including bubonic plague, flea-borne rickettsioses (typhus and spotted fever) and cat scratch disease.
Historically, a lack of flea genome assemblies has hindered research, especially comparisons to other disease vectors, according to the scientists. The researchers set out to generate a genome sequence for the cat flea, known as Ctenocephalides felis, an insect that generates a substantial human health risk throughout the world.
A genome is a complete set of DNA sequences of an organism. By combining specific sequencing of DNA derived from multiple inbred female fleas, the scientists generated a chromosome-level genome assembly for the cat flea. The study provides the first genome sequence for Siphonaptera, which is expected to substantially inform comparative studies on insect vectors of human disease, according to the authors.
The authors are Timothy P. Driscoll, Victoria I. Verhoeve, Joseph J. Gillespie, J. Spencer Johnston, Mark L. Guillotte, Kristen E. Rennoll-Bankert, M. Sayeedur Rahman, Darren Hagen, Christine G. Elsik, Macaluso and Abdu F. Azad.
The accrued resources and knowledge from the study are timely as a rise of typhus cases have been reported in Southern California and Galveston, Texas. These cases, according to the authors, are directly attributable to fleas associated with increasing populations of rodents and opossums, and requires immediate efforts to combat this serious and underappreciated risk to human health.
This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and represents a collaboration between faculty at the USA College of Medicine, West Virginia University, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Texas A&M University, Oklahoma State University, and University of Missouri.
