TABLE 1.

Levels of genetic similarity and differences between novel agent (Tibet strain) and ehrlichial species in 16S rRNA sequences^a

Organism	% Similarity or difference between Ehrlichia sp. strain Tibet and:
	Ehrlichial sp. strain Tibet	E. chaffeensis	E. canis	E. ewingii	E. muris	E. phagocytophila	E. platys	E. bovis	E. risticii	E. sennetsu	Ehrlichia sp. strain SF
Ehrlichia sp. strain Tibet		0.010	0.013	0.014	0.021	0.072	0.080	0.087	0.157	0.154	0.154
E. chaffeensis	99.00		0.016	0.016	0.016	0.071	0.078	0.084	0.154	0.152	0.152
E. canis	98.72	98.43		0.018	0.027	0.074	0.081	0.088	0.157	0.155	0.155
E. ewingii	98.65	98.36	98.22		0.021	0.076	0.083	0.091	0.158	0.157	0.155
E. muris	97.93	98.36	97.29	97.86		0.076	0.082	0.088	0.159	0.157	0.156
E. phagocytophila	92.80	92.94	92.59	92.44	92.37		0.014	0.031	0.150	0.149	0.151
E. platys	92.02	92.24	91.87	91.66	91.81	98.65		0.031	0.154	0.152	0.155
E. bovis	91.31	91.60	91.23	90.95	91.24	96.94	96.87		0.159	0.157	0.162
E. risticii	84.27	84.56	84.33	84.19	84.13	85.00	84.58	84.08		0.009	0.009
E. sennetsu	84.56	84.85	84.48	84.33	84.35	85.14	84.48	84.30	99.07		0.013
Ehrlichia sp. strain SF	84.56	84.85	84.55	84.55	84.42	84.93	84.51	83.80	99.07	98.72

^aThe values on the upper right are corrected levels of nucleotide differences for 1,403 bases, which could be aligned without ambiguity in all organisms. The values on the lower left are percentages of sequence similarity for regions that could be aligned unambiguously.