Mycoplasma and Bartonella biology

Research questions

1) What are the main transmission mechanisms of Mycoplasma and Bartonella pathogens among host and flea individuals?

2) What is the temporal dynamics of these bacteria within host and flea individuals?

3) What is the role of immune response in shaping the dynamics of these species?

4) What are the effects of these bacteria on the host physiology and behavior?

Description 

Mycoplasma haemomuris-like bacteria and Bartonella spp. dominate the bacterial communities in fleas and the blood of their rodent hosts. These two groups of bacteria are of special interest for both basic and applied sciences. Their high abundance in vertebrate blood contrasts with the common wisdom that blood is mostly a sterile tissue. It is still not fully understood how these bacteria survive and reproduce without being cleared out by the host. This is especially intriguing in the case of Mycoplasma, which is restricted to the blood cell surface and has no mobile elements. Regarding the applied aspect, Bartonellae and haemotropic mycoplasmas are associated with vertebrate diseases (e.g., Carrion’s disease, cat scratch disease, endocarditis, neuroretinitis, myocarditis, hemolytic anemia, bone marrow disorders, and pyrexia), but currently both groups are studied mainly in domestic animals and under artificial settings. Here we combine descriptive data from the field and lab experiments with wild rodents and their fleas and bacteria to broaden our understanding of the dynamics of Bartonella and Mycoplasma bacteria in natural communities.  

Relevant publications

Gutiérrez, R., D. Morick, C. Cohen, H. Hawlena. and S. Harrus.2014. The effect of ecological and temporal factors on the composition of Bartonella infection in rodents and their fleas. The ISME Journal  8:1598-1608. https://www.nature.com/articles/ismej201422 

Cohen, C., M. Shemesh, M. Garrido, I. Messika, M. Einav, I.S. Khokhlova, S. Tasker, and H. Hawlena. 2018. Haemoplasmas in wild rodents: Routes of transmission and infection dynamics. Molecular Ecology, 27:3714–3726. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/mec.14826 

Gutiérrez , R., C. Cohen, R. Flatau, E. Marcos-Hadad, M. Garrido, S. Halle, Y. Nachum-Biala, S. Covo, H. Hawlena, and S. Harrus. 2018. Untangling the knots: co-infection and diversity of Bartonella from wild gerbils and their associated fleas. Molecular Ecology, 27:4787–4807. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328508740 

Kedem H., C. Cohen, I. Messika, M. Einav, S. Pilosof, Hawlena H. 2014. Multiple effects of host species diversity on co-existing host-specific and host-opportunistic microbes. Ecology 95:1173–1183. https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1890/13-0678.1 

Gavish, Y., H. Kedem, I. Messika, C. Cohen, E. Toh, D. Munro, Q. Dong, C. Fuqua, K. Clay, and H. Hawlena. 2014. Association of host and microbial species diversity across spatial scales in desert rodent communities. Plos One 9(10): e109677. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/comments?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0109677 

Garrido, M, S. Halle, R. Flatau, C. Cohen, Á. Navarro-Castilla, I. Barja, and H. Hawlena. 2021. The dilution effect behind the scenes: testing the underlying assumptions of its mechanisms through quantifying the long-term dynamics and effects of a pathogen in multiple host species. Proceedings of the Royal society B. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rspb.2021.0773 

Cohen, C., M. Einav, and H. Hawlena. 2015. Path analyses of cross-sectional and longitudinal data suggest that variability in natural communities of blood-associated parasites is derived from host characteristics and not interspecific interactions. Parasites & Vectors 8 art 429. https://parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13071-015-1029-5 

Eidelman, A., C. Cohen, Á. Navarro-Castilla, S. Filler, R. Gutiérrez, E. Bar-Shira, N. Shahar, M. Garrido, S. Halle, Y. Romach, I. Barja, S. Tasker, S. Harrus, A. Friedman, and H. Hawlena. 2019. The dynamics between limited-term and lifelong coinfecting bacterial parasites in wild rodent hosts. Journal of Experimental Biology 222: jeb203562. https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/222/15/jeb203562/20321