@article {77,
	title = {Potential role of head lice, Pediculus humanus capitis, as vectors of Rickettsia prowazekii},
	journal = {Parasitology research},
	volume = {90},
	year = {2003},
	month = {2003},
	pages = {209 - 211},
	abstract = {Since the pioneering work of Charles Nicolle in 1909 [see Gross (1996) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 93:10539-10540] most medical officers and scientists have assumed that body lice are the sole vectors of Rickettsia prowazekii, the aetiological agent of louse-borne epidemic typhus (LBET). Here we review the evidence for the axiom that head lice are not involved in epidemics of LBET. Laboratory experiments demonstrate the ability of head lice to transmit R. prowazekii, but evidence for this in the field has not been reported. However, the assumption that head lice do not transmit R. prowazekii has meant that head lice have not been examined for R. prowazekii during epidemics of LBET. The strong association between obvious (high) infestations of body lice and LBET has contributed to this perception, but this association does not preclude head lice as vectors of R. prowazekii. Indeed, where the prevalence and intensity of body louse infections may be high (e.g. during epidemics of LBET), the prevalence and intensity of head louse infestations is generally high as well. This review of the epidemiology of head louse and body louse infestations, and of LBET, indicates that head lice are potential vectors of R. prowazekii in the field. Simple observations in the field would reveal whether or not head lice are natural vectors of this major human pathogen.},
	keywords = {animals, humans, Insect vectors, Lice Infestations/epidemiology, Pediculus, Rickettsia prowazekii/physiology, typhus},
	isbn = {0932-0113},
	author = {Robinson,D. and Leo,Natalie P. and Prociv,P. and Barker,Stephen C.}
}
@article {82,
	title = {Susceptibility of head lice (Pediculus humanus capitis) to pediculicides in Australia},
	journal = {Parasitology Research},
	volume = {90},
	year = {2003},
	month = {2003},
	pages = {476 - 478},
	url = {http://www.phthiraptera.info/Publications/6651.pdf},
	author = {Hunter,J. A. and Barker,Stephen C.}
}
@article {85,
	title = {Intragenomic variation in ITS2 rDNA in the louse of humans, Pediculus humanus: ITS2 is not a suitable marker for population studies in this species},
	journal = {Insect Molecular Biology},
	volume = {11},
	year = {2002},
	month = {2002},
	pages = {651 - 657},
	abstract = {The two internal transcribed spacers (ITS) of ribosomal DNA are often used as markers of populations of insects. We studied the ITS2 of the head lice and body lice of humans, to determine whether this gene is a suitable marker of populations of these insects. ITS2 sequences were amplified by PCR from lice from four different countries: Australia, China, Japan and the USA. Direct cycle-sequencing of some of these PCR products gave equivocal nucleotide chromatograms. This indicated that some lice had more than one ITS2 sequence, so we cloned PCR products from these lice. Temperature gradient gel electrophoresis (TGGE) revealed that 50 of the 67 clones we screened had different nucleotide sequences. All lice had several ITS2 types, including those with unequivocal chromatograms. A phylogenetic tree of 15 different ITS2 sequences showed that the sequences from individual lice were not monophyletic. We conclude that the ITS2 is not a useful marker of populations for Pediculus humanus.},
	keywords = {animals, Australia, Base Sequence, China, dna, geography, humans, Introns, Japan, Lice Infestations/parasitology, Molecular Sequence Data, Pediculus, phylogeny, polymerase, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov{\textquoteright}t, sequence, U.S.A., variation},
	url = {http://www.phthiraptera.info/Publications/44841.pdf},
	author = {Leo,Natalie P. and Barker,Stephen C.}
}
@article {17,
	title = {The single mitochondrial chromosome typical of animals has evolved into 18 minichromosomes in the human body louse, Pediculus humanus},
	journal = {Genome Research},
	volume = {19},
	year = {2009},
	month = {2009},
	pages = {904 - 912},
	abstract = {The mitochondrial (mt) genomes of animals typically consist of a single circular chromosome that is \~{}16-kb long and has 37 genes. Our analyses of the sequence reads from the Human Body Louse Genome Project and the patterns of gel electrophoresis and Southern hybridization revealed a novel type of mt genome in the sucking louse, Pediculus humanus. Instead of having all mt genes on a single chromosome, the 37 mt genes of this louse are on 18 minicircular chromosomes. Each minicircular chromosome is 3{\textendash}4 kb long and has one to three genes. Minicircular mt chromosomes are also present in the four other species of sucking lice that we investigated, but not in chewing lice nor in the Psocoptera, to which sucking lice are most closely related. We also report unequivocal evidence for recombination between minicircular mt chromosomes in P. humanus and for sequence variation in mt genes generated by recombination. The advantages of a fragmented mt genome, if any, are currently unknown. Fragmentation of mt genome, however, has coevolved with blood feeding in the sucking lice. It will be of interest to explore whether or not life history features are associated with the evolution of fragmented chromosomes.},
	author = {Shao,Renfu and Kirkness,Ewen F. and Barker,Stephen C.}
}
@article {18,
	title = {Metalloproteases and egg-hatching in Pediculus humanus, the body (clothes) louse of humans (Phthiraptera: Insecta)},
	journal = {Parasitology},
	volume = {135},
	year = {2008},
	month = {2008},
	pages = {125 - 130},
	abstract = {To investigate the biochemical components of egg-hatch in the body louse, Pediculus humanus, egg-shell-washings (ESW) were collected during the first 2 h post-hatching and analysed by gelatin SDS-PAGE. These ESW contained proteases with molecular mass in the range of 25{\textendash}100 kDa; the most abundant proteases were ~25 kDa. The 3 main regions of protease activity in the one-dimensional gelatin SDS-PAGE gels resolved to at least 23 distinct regions of protease activity when analysed by two-dimensional gelatin SDS-PAGE, with iso-electric points spread over the entire 3 to 10 pH range. Mechanistic characterization indicated that the ESW contained proteases of the metallo-class, inhibited by both 1,10-phenanthroline and EDTA. Several protease inhibitors were tested for their ability to inhibit louse egg-hatch in vitro. The metalloprotease inhibitor 1,10-phenanthroline and the aminopeptidase inhibitor bestatin significantly inhibited (P<{\textperiodcentered}05) louse egg-hatch (100\% and 58\%, respectively). The presence of metalloproteases at the time of egg-hatch and the inhibition of egg-hatch in P. humanus by metalloprotease inhibitors suggests a crucial role for these proteases in the hatching of this medically important parasite.},
	author = {Bowles,V. M. and Young,A. R. and Barker,Stephen C.}
}
@article {42,
	title = {Transmission ratio distortion in the human body louse, Pediculus humanus (Insecta: Phthiraptera)},
	journal = {Heredity},
	volume = {96},
	year = {2006},
	note = {DEP: 20050921; JID: 0373007; aheadofprint},
	month = {2006},
	pages = {63 - 68},
	abstract = {We studied inheritance at three microsatellite loci in eight F(1) and two F(2) families of the body (clothes) louse of humans, Pediculus humanus. The alleles of heterozygous female-parents were always inherited in a Mendelian fashion in these families. Alleles from heterozygous male-parents, however, were inherited in two different ways: (i) in a Mendelian fashion and (ii) in a non-Mendelian fashion, where males passed to their offspring only one of their two alleles, that is, 100\% nonrandom transmission. In male body lice, where there was non-Mendelian inheritance, the paternally inherited set of alleles was eliminated. We interpret this pattern of inheritance as evidence for extreme transmission ratio distortion of paternal alleles in this species.Heredity advance online publication, 21 September 2005; doi:10.1038/sj.hdy.6800760.},
	isbn = {0018-067X},
	url = {http://www.phthiraptera.info/Publications/44614.pdf},
	author = {McMeniman,C. J. and Barker,Stephen C.}
}
