Molecular Detection of Rickettsia from Ticks Samples

• Main Author: Teoh, Jia Hui
• Format: Final Year Project Report
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, (UNIMAS) 2018
• Subjects: R Medicine (General)
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/35772/2/TEOH%20JIA%20HUI.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/35772/
• Institution: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

Rickettsia is a Gram-negative and an obligate intracellular bacterium. Ticks and rodents have been proven to be the major vectors and host for the transmission of Rickettsia. The main concern of this study is that Rickettsia might be present in the ticks and rodents in Sarawak which can serve as a transmission route in increasing the risks of potential Rickettsiosis outbreak in human. The objective of this research is to isolate the DNA from ticks and to detect the presence of Rickettsia from the DNA extracted. In this research, 30 ticks samples were crushed using pestles and mortars followed by DNA extraction by using Wizard Genomic DNA Purification Kit. Then, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting citrate synthase gene (gltA) was performed to detect the presence of Rickettsia. There were no positive results detected from the ticks samples. The results obtained might be a true negative or a false negative result due to the absence of positive control. True negative result obtained might be due to small sample size, limited sampling site, low number of Rickettsia in DNA extracted and limited species of ticks. False negative results might be caused by low DNA concentration and quality, suboptimal PCR reaction condition and insufficient sensitivity of conventional PCR to detect Rickettsia. Further research regarding Rickettsia is still crucial to monitor the prevalence of Rickettsia in the community of Sarawak and to establish epidemiological data of Rickettsiae in Malaysia.