Original cin: Is Orientia capable of gene drive?

Orientia tsutsugamushi is the pathogen of scrub typhus. Orientia is a close sister to non-pathogenic Wolbachia. Wolbachia endosymbionts are famous for reproductive manipulations. They distort insect reproduction to favor their inheritance. Cytoplasmic Incompatibility (CI) is the main reproductive distortion. CI is controlled by toxin-antidote operons. The recent discovery and characterization of these operons has facilitated their bioinformatic discovery in closely related pathogenic Rickettsia and Orientia. The function of all characterized CI operons is to drive harboring host bacteria into populations of insects, establishing a robust natural gene-drive. The discovery of CI operons in pathogens raises the question of whether the pathogens themselves are also capable of gene drive in ticks and mites? If true, this raises significant epidemiological concerns for these pathogens and their corresponding diseases. Here we characterize and describe the toxin-antidote functionality of a CI operon from Orientia tsutsugamushi.