Rickettsia prowazekii

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Rickettsia prowazekii
Scientific classification
Domain:	Bacteria
Phylum:	Pseudomonadota
Class:	Alphaproteobacteria
Order:	Rickettsiales
Family:	Rickettsiaceae
Genus:	Rickettsia
Species group:	Typhus group
Species:	R. prowazekii
Binomial name
Rickettsia prowazekii da Rocha-Lima, 1916

Rickettsia prowazekii is a species of gram-negative, alphaproteobacteria, obligate intracellular parasitic, aerobic bacillus bacteria that is the etiologic agent of epidemic typhus, transmitted in the feces of lice. In North America, the main reservoir for R. prowazekii is the flying squirrel. R. prowazekii is often surrounded by a protein microcapsular layer and slime layer; the natural life cycle of the bacterium generally involves a vertebrate and an invertebrate host, usually an arthropod, typically the human body louse. A form of R. prowazekii that exists in the feces of arthropods remains stably infective for months. R. prowazekii also appears to be the closest semi-free-living relative of mitochondria, based on genome sequencing.^[1]