Orientia tsutsugamushi is an understudied, gram negative, obligate intracellular
bacterium that is transmitted by mites within the genus Leptotrombidium. This bacterium has an
epidemic area called the Tsutsugamushi Triangle that spreads roughly 13 million km2 and an
estimated one billion people are at risk of contracting the bacterium. Commonly this bacterium
causes a disease called Scrub Typhus. There are many strains which cause a wide range of
virulence. These strains have protein domains that have been originally identified as Eukaryotic.
This domain is called Ankyrin Repeating Domain (Anks). Attached to several of these Anks are
another domain call F-boxes. These F-boxes are typically used in the process of attaching
ubiquitin to a substrate for later degradation by the cell. O. tsutsugamushi actively secretes these
proteins into their host cell, but little is known what pathway these Ankyrin proteins are using.
Our focus for this study was attempting to identify pathways for a set of these Anks
