The superorder Xenarthra consists of sloths, anteaters and armadillos, mammals originated from South America and currently distributed from the south of North America to the south of South America. The present study aimed to investigate the occurrence and genetic diversity of Bartonella spp. in blood and spleen samples from free‐living Xenarthra mammals in the states of São Paulo (SP), Mato Grosso do Sul (MS), Rondônia (RO) and Pará (PA). Based on a quantitative real‐time PCR (qPCR) assay, a Bartonella spp. nuoG gene fragment was detected in 1.51% (5/330) of the samples: 4 six‐banded armadillos (Euphractus sexcinctus) sampled in the MS and 1 southern tamandua (Tamandua tetradactyla) sampled in the PA. Eight sequences (5 ftsZ, 2 gltA and 1 rpoB) were obtained in the conventional PCR assays. In both phylogenetic analyses based on Bayesian and distance (SplitsTree) methods, the obtained ftsZ, gltA and rpoB sequences were positioned in a distinct clade, but related to B. washoensis. The analysis of SplitsTree and genotype networks based on B. washoensis sequences from several hosts from various localities of the world showed that the sequences of the present study were allocated in a group separated from the other sequences, indicating that they probably originated from median vectors and large numbers of mutational events. Additionally, the analyses performed by BLAST showed low percentages of identities of the sequences obtained in the present study when compared to those previously deposited in GenBank. Therefore, we propose a new Candidatus to Bartonella occurring in Xenarthra in Brazil. The present study was the first to report the occurrence of Bartonella sp. in mammals of the superorder Xenarthra in the world, and it was the first to describe a new Candidatus related to B. washoensis in Brazil.

中文翻译：

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多位点测序揭示了Xenarthra总目哺乳动物中的一种新型巴尔通体

Xenarthra总目由树懒、食蚁兽和犰狳组成，是起源于南美洲的哺乳动物，目前分布于北美南部至南美洲南部。本研究旨在调查巴尔通体的发生和遗传多样性。存在于圣保罗州（SP）、南马托格罗索州（MS）、朗多尼亚州（RO）和帕拉州（PA）的自由生活的 Xenarthra 哺乳动物的血液和脾脏样本中。基于实时定量 PCR (qPCR) 检测，巴尔通体属 (Bartonella spp.) 在 1.51% (5/330) 的样本中检测到nuoG基因片段：在 MS 中采样的4 只六带犰狳 ( Euphactus sexcinctus ) 和在 PA 采样的1 只南小食蚁兽 ( Tamandua tetradactyla )。在常规 PCR 测定中获得了8 个序列（5 ftsZ、2 gltA和 1 rpoB ）。在基于贝叶斯和距离（SplitsTree）方法的系统发育分析中，获得的ftsZ、gltA和rpoB序列位于不同的进化枝中，但与B. washoensis相关。基于来自世界各地的几个宿主的SplitsTree和基因型网络的分析表明，本研究的序列被分配在与其他序列分开的一组中，表明它们可能起源于中位向量并且大量突变事件。此外，BLAST 进行的分析显示，与之前存储在 GenBank 中的序列相比，本研究中获得的序列同一性百分比较低。因此，我们提出了一个新的候选巴尔通体，出现在巴西的 Xenarthra。本研究首次报告了巴尔通体的发生。世界上 Xenarthra 总目的哺乳动物中，首次描述了与巴西B. washoensis相关的新 Candidatus。