a genus of small pathogenic bacteria that multiply only in host cells. It is named after the American pathologist H. T. Ricketts (1871–1910), who in 1909 discovered the causative agent of Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Rickettsia is a short rod (0.3 × 0.3 to 2 μm) with rounded ends occurring singly or in pairs. The rods are nonsporogenous, nonmotile, and gram-negative; they multiply by transverse division. The rickettsiae are no larger than some viruses but are classified as bacteria since they divide and have cell walls, cytoplasmic membranes, ribosomes, and nuclei. In addition, they synthesize protein, the nucleic acids DNA and RNA, ATP, and the enzymes of intermediate metabolism, chiefly those of the tricarboxylic acid cycle.
Being intracellular parasites, the rickettsiae make use of growth factors from cells of the host organism. The cytoplasmic membrane of the rickettsiae is highly permeable, a result of their adaptation to a parasitic mode of life. The rickettsiae do not grow on the ordinary nutrient media and require chick embryos or animal cell cultures. They are sensitive to unfavorable physical or chemical factors and to some antibiotics.
The rickettsiae include the causative agents of epidemic typhus (Rickettsia prowazekii), murine typhus (R. mooseri), Q fever (Coxiella burnetii), and other endemic or widespread rickettsioses.
A. A. IMSHENETSKII