About the Authors

Heidie M. Hornstra

Contributed equally to this work with: Heidie M. Hornstra, Rachael A. Priestley

Affiliation Center for Microbial Genetics and Genomics, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, United States of America

Rachael A. Priestley

Contributed equally to this work with: Heidie M. Hornstra, Rachael A. Priestley

Affiliation Rickettsial Zoonoses Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Shalamar M. Georgia

Affiliation Center for Microbial Genetics and Genomics, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, United States of America

Sergey Kachur

Affiliation Center for Microbial Genetics and Genomics, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, United States of America

Dawn N. Birdsell

Affiliation Center for Microbial Genetics and Genomics, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, United States of America

Remy Hilsabeck

Affiliation Center for Microbial Genetics and Genomics, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, United States of America

Lauren T. Gates

Affiliation Center for Microbial Genetics and Genomics, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, United States of America

James E. Samuel

Affiliation Department of Microbial and Molecular Pathogenesis, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College Station, Texas, United States of America

Robert A. Heinzen

Affiliation Laboratory of Intracellular Parasites, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, Montana, United States of America

Gilbert J. Kersh

Affiliation Rickettsial Zoonoses Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Paul Keim

Affiliations Center for Microbial Genetics and Genomics, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, United States of America, Pathogen Genomics Division, Translational Genomics Research Institute, Phoenix, Arizona, United States of America

Robert F. Massung

rfm2@cdc.gov (RFM); talima.pearson@nau.edu (TP)

Affiliation Rickettsial Zoonoses Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Talima Pearson

rfm2@cdc.gov (RFM); talima.pearson@nau.edu (TP)

Affiliation Center for Microbial Genetics and Genomics, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Bioinformatic work and assay design: HMH SMG SK DNB RH LTG TP. Collected genotype data: HMH RAP SMG SK RH LTG. Provided materials and data, interpreted results: HMH RAP GJK JES RAH PK RFM TP. Wrote the manuscript: HMH RFM TP.