Identification of an Uncultivable Borrelia Species in the Hard Tick Amblyomma americanum: Possible Agent of a Lyme Disease-like Illness

Abstract

Bites from the hard tick Amblyomma americanum are associated with a Lyme disease-like illness in the southern United States. To identify possible etiologic agents for this disorder, A. americanum ticks were collected in Missouri, Texas, New Jersey, and New York and examined microscopically. Uncultivable spirochetes were present in approximately 2% of the ticks. Borrelia genus-specific oligonucleotides for the flagellin and 16S rRNA genes were used for amplification of DNA. Products were obtained from ticks containing spirochetes by microscopy but not from spirochete-negative ticks. Sequences of partial genes from spirochetes in Texas and New Jersey ticks differed by only 2 of 641 nucleotides for flagellin and 2 of 1336 nucleotides for 16S rRNA. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the spirochete was a Borrelia species distinct from previously characterized members of this genus, including Borrelia burgdorferi. Gene amplification could be used to detect these spirochetes in ticks and possible mammalian hosts.

Profile of patients with Baggio-Yoshinari Syndrome admitted at "Instituto de Infectologia Emilio Ribas"

“…The primers employed were targeted to identify outer surface protein A (OspA) 22 and genes for major flagellin FlaB and minor flagellin FlaA 20 , as well as for ribosomal 16S rRNA 3 .…”

Glycerophosphodiester Phosphodiesterase Gene ( glpQ ) of Borrelia lonestari Identified as a Target for Differentiating Borrelia Species Associated with Hard Ticks (Acari:Ixodidae)

“…Patients bitten by Ixodidae ticks in the southeastern or south-central United States may suffer from southern tick-associated rash illness (STARI) caused by an unknown etiologic agent or an inflammatory response (1-3, 5, 9, 10). Evidence suggests that persons in these regions bitten by the hard tick, Amblyomma americanum, who develop a red, expanding rash with central clearing (indistinguishable from erythema migrans, the hallmark rash of LD) are infected with a spirochete named Borrelia lonestari (3,4,8,18 (14). With these data, and given that B. lonestari is more closely related to RFG spirochetes than to LD spirochetes based on 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) and fla analyses (3,4,7,8,13), we decided to look for an ortholog of glpQ in B. lonestari-positive tick DNA.…”

“…This provided ample B. lonestaripositive tick DNA template for future studies. A subset of A. americanum ticks from the same Missouri field collection was sent to the University of California-Irvine and processed for DNA extraction as reported in detail elsewhere (3). An aliquot of this tick DNA extract was sent to the Rocky Mountain Laboratories for independent PCR and DNA sequence analysis (1).…”

Borrelia lonestariDNA in AdultAmblyomma americanumTicks, Alabama

“…However, a clinical condition similar to Lyme disease, termed southern tick-associated rash illness (STARI), has been described in humans in the southeastern region of the United States associated with the bite of Amblyomma americanum ticks (1,4,5). Moreover, a new spirochete, B. lonestari, was described from A. americanum on the basis of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of the flagellin and 16s rRNA genes (6,7). Virtually identical sequences have been found in ticks from geographic regions as disparate as New Jersey and Texas (6), suggesting this organism is widely distributed.…”