J Korean Med Sci.  2017 Jun;32(6):1038-1041. 10.3346/jkms.2017.32.6.1038.

Clinical and Genetic Features of Coxiella burnetii in a Patient with an Acute Febrile Illness in Korea

• Lee SH
• Heo JY
• Lee HK
• Lee YS
• Jeong HW
• Hwang SD

• KMID: 2377736
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2017.32.6.1038

Abstract

Although Q fever is an important zoonotic infection with a worldwide distribution, no human isolates of Coxiella burnetii have been identified in Korea. For the first time, we identified the nucleotide sequence of C. burnetii from a 32-year-old man with an acute febrile illness in Korea. Diagnosis of acute Q fever was confirmed by seroconversion using indirect immunofluorescence antibody assays. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated high sequence similarity (99.6%-100%) with C. burnetii 16S rRNA sequences identified from the reservoir. These results are the first genetic analysis of C. burnetii in a human case of Q fever in Korea.

Keyword

Coxiella burnetii; Q Fever; Korea; 16s rRNA

MeSH Terms

Adult
Base Sequence
Coxiella burnetii*
Coxiella*
Diagnosis
Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect
Humans
Korea*
Q Fever
Seroconversion
Zoonoses

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 Phylogenetic tree constructed by Jukes-Cantor/Neighbor joining methods based on 16S rRNA sequences of Coxiella burnetii. The sequence of C. burnetii obtained in this study is marked using arrows. The accession numbers of sequences obtained from GenBank are shown with the sequence names and countries of origin. Numbers on the branches indicate bootstrap support (1,000 replicates). Scale bars indicate phylogenetic distances of 0.35 nucleotide substitutions per position. The sequences of human C. burnetii (KX825917) were analyzed by Chungbuk National University Hospital and the Korea National Institute of Health.

• 

  Fig. 2 Comparison of Coxiella burnetii 16S rRNA nucleotide sequences. The upper matrix shows percent identity between the partial sequences of the Coxiella 16S rRNA gene. The lower matrix presents the number of differences in nucleotide bases.

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