A study on the starvation response mechanism of Rickettsia, an obligate intracellular parasitic bacteria

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We generated antibody to autophagy-related antigen Atg12 of a tick to monitor the establishment of starvation state on tick cells to elucidate the response mechanism for rickettsiae to survive in an environment of starvation in ticks, arthropod vectors of rickettsiae. When tick cells and mammalian cells were infected with nonpathogenic spotted fever group rickettsiae, the growth of rickettsiae was restricted. Autophagy was suggested to be contributed to this restriction. Moreover, when the infected cells were superinfected with pathogenic rickettsiae, the growth of the nonpathogenic rickettsiae were induced. We speculated the possibility that the pathogenic rickettsiae generate a restriction factor(s) of autophagy.