A novel Rickettsia subspecies closely related to Rickettsia felis in Aedes albopictus from Qingdao City, Eastern China
Xin-Yi Zhang, Li-Zhu Fang, Bing-Hui Li, Rui Sun, Song Liu, Si-Tong Liu, Zhao-Guo Wang · 2026
Read A novel Rickettsia subspecies closely related to Rickettsia felis in Aedes albopictus from Qingdao City, Eastern China by Xin-Yi Zhang, Li-Zhu Fang, Bing-Hui Li, Rui Sun, Song Liu, Si-Tong Liu, Zhao-Guo Wang (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13268991.txt.
Description
Xin-Yi Zhang and co-authors report in 2026 a likely new subspecies of the bacterium Rickettsia felis found in Asian tiger mosquitoes caught in Qingdao, eastern China. They collected 232 mosquitoes and compared five genes of the bacterium against known relatives. Individual genes matched different named strains at high similarity, painting a mixed portrait.
When the five genes were combined into one family tree, the strains grouped closest to Rickettsia felis, an emerging human pathogen carried by fleas, mosquitoes, and booklice. The authors propose a subspecies name honoring the Laoshan area. Whether this bacterium can make people or animals sick is still unknown, a gap they flag for future work given the mosquito's wide reach and biting habits around homes.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Xin-Yi Zhang, Li-Zhu Fang, Bing-Hui Li, Rui Sun, Song Liu, Si-Tong Liu, Zhao-Guo Wang |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 18 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |