bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.04.235903; this version posted August 4, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY 4.0 International license. 1 Novel small RNAs expressed by Bartonella bacilliformis under multiple conditions 2 reveal potential mechanisms for persistence in the sand fly vector and human 3 host 4 5 6 Shaun Wachter1, Linda D. Hicks1, Rahul Raghavan2 and Michael F. Minnick1* 7 8 9 10 1 Program in Cellular, Molecular & Microbial Biology, Division of Biological Sciences, 11 University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, United States of America 12 2 Department of Biology and Center for Life in Extreme Environments, Portland State 13 University, Portland, Oregon, United States of America 14 15 16 17 * Corresponding author 18 E-mail:
[email protected] (MFM) 19 20 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.04.235903; this version posted August 4, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY 4.0 International license. 21 Abstract 22 Bartonella bacilliformis, the etiological agent of Carrión’s disease, is a Gram-negative, 23 facultative intracellular alphaproteobacterium. Carrión’s disease is an emerging but neglected 24 tropical illness endemic to Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador. B. bacilliformis is spread between 25 humans through the bite of female phlebotomine sand flies.