Article of Significant Interest in This Issue

The human disease Q-fever is caused by the obligate intracellular bacterial pathogen Coxiella burnetii. Cell biological studies have defined the unique lysosome-derived vacuole in which C. burnetii replicates, but many questions remain as to how this pathogen spreads through the body to cause disease. Andrews and Roy (e00080-25) have used luminescent C. burnetii to investigate pathogenesis in a mouse model of infection. Bioluminescent imaging of whole animals revealed differences in the dissemination of C. burnetii and mutants defective in intracellular replication in this mouse model and identified host adipocytes as a preferred niche for bacterial replication. Understanding how C. burnetii targets adipocytes could provide important clues as to how this pathogen can persist and cause disease in mammalian hosts.