My name is Aegyptianella pullorum. I am a pretty small organism, fluctuating between 0.3 and 0.5 micrometers in diameter, and am coccoid shaped. Although I lack a cell wall, I have no preference for my future significant other. However, I am really into parasitizing the red blood cells of various birds such as chickens, ostriches, ducks, geese, and quail, and my partner should be also.
I can usually be found in various cytoplasmic inclusions with 25 or so of my closest friends. I reproduce asexually by binary fission, and it takes me 30 days to fully mature, but I am already 34. If you have pili, don't bother to call.
As far as transportation goes, I have no flagellum, and thus I am not very motile. However, I love to travel via the argasid species of arthropods. The trips between birds are absolutely marvelous inside the ticks, and if you are the intimate kind, I know of a little capillary behind the heart of any vertebrate which would offer us complete privacy to have a little endocytosis-exocytosis cytoplasmic exchange, if you know what I mean.
However, my favorite pastime is, and always will be, inflicting irreversible damage on my hosts. Like any of my genus can tell you, there is nothing like the feeling you get after causing a perfectly good erythrocyte to lyse.
If you decide that we are right for one another, your initial search may be difficult. In general, I prefer to infect poultry only in the Mediterranean area, particularly Egypt (from where I got my genus name). Taxonomically, I belong to the family Anaplasmataceae, but beyond that I have not been categorized.
Once you have found me, however, I know that we will have lots of fun. Although I am resistant to arsenic, sulfanamides, penicillin, and streptomycin, I am highly sensitive to tetracycline and dithiosemicarbazone. I love to live dangerously in birds in which these antibiotics are used.
As for you, you had better not be cheap. I can't be cultured anywhere but in vivo, so don't try any funny stuff like tricking me into an embryonic chicken egg. It won't work! Also, I would prefer a microbe with a high DNA/RNA ratio to complement myself. I have more than enough RNA.
One other thing, my G+C content hasn't been determined and I'm not acid-fast, so don't ask!
Empty in Egypt,
Aegyptianella pullorum*Disclaimer - This report was written by a student participaring in a microbiology course at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. The accuracy of the contents of this report is not guaranteed and it is recommended that you seek additional sources of information to verify the contents.
Return to Missouri S&T Microbiology HomePage Go to DJW's HomePage
This Document is maintained by djwesten@ mst.edu
