Bacteriophage in the Ixodes dammini spirochete, etiological agent of Lyme disease

Hayes, Stanley F.; Burgdorfer, Willy; Barbour, Alan G.

doi:10.1128/jb.154.3.1436-1439.1983

Cited by 42 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Although bacteriophages have been occasionally observed in cultures of B. burgdorferi (19,30,38) and one of the circular plasmids has features of a possible prophage (13), until this study no phage of B. burgdorferi had been isolated and char-acterized. We now report the isolation of a bacteriophage of B. burgdorferi that has a polyhedral head of 50 to 60 nm and a simple, noncontractile tail of 100 nm.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…The bacteriophage we report here has not yet been seen in association with B. burgdorferi cells. Previously, other researchers reported a cubic Borrelia phage (5,19), and still others have described two isometric phages with contractile and noncontractile tails (30,38).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Phage-like particles associated with Borrelia burgdorferi were first observed shortly after the bacterium was identified as the causative agent of Lyme disease (10,19). Identicallooking phages from a culture of Borrelia hermsii, a relapsing fever agent, were later described (5).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Molecular Evidence for a New Bacteriophage of Borrelia burgdorferi

1999

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We have recovered a DNase-protected, chloroform-resistant molecule of DNA from the cell-free supernatant of a Borrelia burgdorferi culture. The DNA is a 32-kb double-stranded linear molecule that is derived from the 32-kb circular plasmids (cp32s) of the B. burgdorferi genome. Electron microscopy of samples from which the 32-kb DNA molecule was purified revealed bacteriophage particles. The bacteriophage has a polyhedral head with a diameter of 55 nm and appears to have a simple 100-nm-long tail. The phage is produced constitutively at low levels from growing cultures of someB. burgdorferi strains and is inducible to higher levels with 10 μg of 1-methyl-3-nitroso-nitroguanidine (MNNG) ml−1. In addition, the prophage can be induced with MNNG from some Borrelia isolates that do not naturally produce phage. We have isolated and partially characterized the phage associated with B. burgdorferi CA-11.2A. To our knowledge, this is the first molecular characterization of a bacteriophage ofB. burgdorferi.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Molecular Evidence for a New Bacteriophage of Borrelia burgdorferi

1999

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“…Finally, we cannot exclude additions to and alterations of the borrelial genome through lysogenic conversion. An isolate of the closely related Lyme disease spirochete was shown to have bacteriophage (37).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structural analysis of the variable major proteins of Borrelia hermsii.

Barbour¹,

Barrera²,

Judd³

1983

The Journal of Experimental Medicine

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116

143

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Borrelia hermsii, a spirochete and an agent of relapsing fever, undergoes spontaneous antigenic variation both in vivo (1, 2) and in vitro (2). The rate of serotypic change is estimated to be 10-3-10 -4 per cell per generation (2). The antigenic repertoire of B. hermsii (2) may be as extensive as that of another vector-transmitted and blood-borne pathogen, Trypanosoma brucei, a eucaryote (3, 4).Examination of four variants or serotypes found among the progeny of a single B. hermsii organism revealed that each serotype had an abundant protein of unique apparent molecular weight (5). Immunofluorescence and radioiodinelabeling studies indicated that these variable proteins, the pI proteins, were located on the surface. Serotype-specific monoclonal antibodies bound to homologous but not heterologous pI proteins (5). The pII protein was the other major protein found in whole cell lysate of each serotype (5). In contrast to pI proteins, the pII proteins had the same apparent molecular weight in each serotype, were less accessible than the pI proteins for iodine labeling, and were recognized in western blots by heterologous as well as homologous polyclonal antiserotype sera (5).As it appears likely that antigenic variation is based on the spontaneous appearance in a borrellia population of an organism possessing an antigenically "novel" pI protein, we are studying the structure of the pI proteins. Of particular importance for models of the genetic mechanism of antigenic variation is the amount of structural relatedness among the different pI proteins.We analyzed the pI and pII proteins of serotypes C, 7, and 21 with one-and two-dimensional (l-D, 2-D) I peptide-mapping procedures. The results indicated that whereas all pII proteins are identical, the pI proteins have little, if any, apparent sequence homology among them. Materials and MethodsOrganisms. The origin of B. hermsii HS 1 and the derivation of the different serotypes have been previously described (2). Serotypes 7 and 21 were passed from frozen stocks

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“…Alternatively, the ospC gene may be transmitted during phage infection. Phage have been observed in Borrelia isolates (Hayes et aL, 1983;Neubert et aL, 1993) but have not been genetically characterized. Exchanges between ospC alleles would require co-infection with two different strains, either within the mammalian host or in the arthropod vector.…”

Section: Lateral Transfer Of Ospcmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for lateral transfer and recombination in OspC variation in Lyme disease Borrelia

Livey¹,

Gibbs²,

Schuster³

et al. 1995

Molecular Microbiology

125

152

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The ospC gene was amplified by the polymerase chain reaction from each of 76 Lyme disease Borrelia strains. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis demonstrated 33 distinct RFLP types; two additional RFLP types were identified from published ospC sequences. For each RFLP type, at least one ospC gene was sequenced and the degree of sequence relatedness examined by construction of an ospC gene tree. The genes were extremely diverse, with sequence identity ranging from 74.4% to 99.0%; the majority of changes are localized within the central portion of the molecule. A comparison of ospC sequences suggests that recombination occurs frequently between ospC alleles; this genetic exchange is proposed to be mediated by lateral transfer of ospC sequences. Evidence indicates that recombination occurs between ospC genes from the same Borrelia species (i.e. B. afzelii and B. garinii) as well as between different Borrelia species (i.e. B. afzelii and B. garinii, B. burgdorferi and genogroup DN127).

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Bacteriophage in the Ixodes dammini spirochete, etiological agent of Lyme disease

Cited by 42 publications

References 18 publications

Molecular Evidence for a New Bacteriophage of Borrelia burgdorferi

Molecular Evidence for a New Bacteriophage of Borrelia burgdorferi

Structural analysis of the variable major proteins of Borrelia hermsii.

Evidence for lateral transfer and recombination in OspC variation in Lyme disease Borrelia

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