Cells within cells: Rickettsiales and the obligate intracellular bacterial lifestyle

The Rickettsiales are a group of obligate intracellular vector-borne Gram-negative bacteria that include many organisms of clinical and agricultural importance, including Anaplasma spp., Ehrlichia chaffeensis , Wolbachia , Rickettsia spp. and Orientia tsutsugamushi . This Review provides an overview of the current state of knowledge of the biology of these bacteria and their interactions with host cells, with a focus on pathogenic species or those that are otherwise important for human health. This includes a description of rickettsial genomics, bacterial cell biology, the intracellular lifestyles of Rickettsiales and the mechanisms by which they induce and evade the innate immune response. In this Review, Salje describes the key features of the best-studied Rickettsiales species that are pathogenic to humans or animals, or otherwise important for human health and the molecular basis of their interactions with mammalian host cells.