Bordetella pertussis

This page is about microbiologic aspects of the organism(s).  For clinical aspects of the disease, see Pertussis.

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: João André Alves Silva, M.D. [2]; Yazan Daaboul, M.D.; Serge Korjian M.D.

Overview

Bordetella pertussis is a Gram-negative, aerobic, non-motile, non-spore-forming coccobacillus. It is the pathogen responsible for pertussis (whooping cough). Unlike B. bronchiseptica, B. pertussis is not motile. Humans are the only known reservoir for B. pertussis. The lipopolysaccharide-containing outer membrane of B. pertussis is unique and contains a different phosphate composition from other bacterial outer membranes.

Bodetella pertussis

Higher Order Taxa

• Kingdom: Bacteria
• Phylum: Proteobacteria
• Class: Betaproteobacteria
• Order: Burkholderiales
• Family: Alcaligenaceae
• Genus: Bordetella
• Species: B. pertussis

Genome

• The genome of B. pertussis consists of 1 circular chromosome and plasmids.

• The circular chromosome contains 3867 genes and 4,086,189 nucleotides.
• The IncP-1 beta plasmid pBP136 carries 46 ORFs and contains 41,268 bp nucleotides.

Structure

• B. pertussis is a Gram-negative, aerobic, non-spore forming coccobacillus.
• Compared with Bordetella bronchiseptica, B. pertussis is non-motile.
• It contains an outer membrane, an inner membrane, and a periplasmic space between the 2 membranes.
• The rough lipopolysaccharide on the outer membrane (also called lipooligosaccharide) contains a phosphate composition (containing lipid X) that is different from other bacterial lipopolysaccharides (containing lipid A). The B. pertussis outer membrane is thus a distinguishing feature of B. pertussis.

References

• Ray, C.G., ed. (2004). Sherris Medical Microbiology (4th ed.). McGraw Hill. ISBN 0-8385-8529-9.
• Todar, K. (2008). "Bordetella pertussis and Whooping Cough". Online Textbook of Bacteriology. Retrieved December 11, 2009.