Profiling of Temperature-Induced Changes in<i>Borrelia burgdorferi</i>Gene Expression by Using Whole Genome Arrays

Ojaimi, Caroline; Brooks, Chad S.; Casjens, Sherwood; Rosa, Patricia A.; Elias, Abdallah F.; Barbour, Alan G.; Jasinskas, Algis; Benach, Jorge L.; Katona, Laura I.; Radolf, Justin D.; Caimano, Melissa J.; Skare, Jon T.; Swingle, Kristen; Akins, Darrin R.; Schwartz, Ira

doi:10.1128/iai.71.4.1689-1705.2003

Cited by 269 publications

(361 citation statements)

References 63 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

328

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Previous microarray analyses performed on Bb have revealed a large number of differentially regulated genes whose functional annotations remain largely unknown (15,41,42). Whereas many of these differentially regulated genes likely represent physiological ''housekeeping'' genes typically not thought of as virulenceassociated, others have been noted in separate studies to encode virulence factors essential for Bb's infection of or survival within its arthropod or mammalian hosts (6,7,33,(43)(44)(45).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

bptA(bbe16) is essential for the persistence of the Lyme disease spirochete,Borrelia burgdorferi, in its natural tick vector

Revel

Blevins

Almazán

et al. 2005

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

109

127

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb), the agent of Lyme disease, is a zoonotic spirochetal bacterium that depends on arthropod (Ixodes ticks) and mammalian (rodent) hosts for its persistence in nature. The quest to identify borrelial genes responsible for Bb's parasitic dependence on these two diverse hosts has been hampered by limitations in the ability to genetically manipulate virulent strains of Bb. Despite this constraint, we report herein the inactivation and genetic complementation of a linear plasmid-25-encoded gene (bbe16) to assess its role in the virulence, pathogenesis, and survival of Bb during its natural life cycle. bbe16 was found to potentiate the virulence of Bb in the murine model of Lyme borreliosis and was essential for the persistence of Bb in Ixodes scapularis ticks. As such, we have renamed bbe16 a gene encoding borrelial persistence in ticks (bpt)A. Although protease accessibility experiments suggested that BptA as a putative lipoprotein is surface-exposed on the outer membrane of Bb, the molecular mechanism(s) by which BptA promotes Bb persistence within its tick vector remains to be elucidated. BptA also was shown to be highly conserved (>88% similarity and >74% identity at the deduced amino acid levels) in all Bb sensu lato strains tested, suggesting that BptA may be widely used by Lyme borreliosis spirochetes for persistence in nature. Given Bb's absolute dependence on and intimate association with its arthropod and mammalian hosts, BptA should be considered a virulence factor critical for Bb's overall parasitic strategy.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

bptA(bbe16) is essential for the persistence of the Lyme disease spirochete,Borrelia burgdorferi, in its natural tick vector

Revel

Blevins

Almazán

et al. 2005

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

109

127

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It was shown that the expression of one gene was selectively increased in salivary glands of ticks infected by B. burgdorferi s.s. during blood feeding (Ramamoorthi et al 2005). Therefore, it may be hypothesized that spirochetes, which are known to change their gene expression depending on temperature (Ojaimi et al 2003), might be able to modify tick gene expression under varying temperature conditions as well, inactivating genes governing vector nonvital functions, slowing metabolism down, so that energy resources would essentially be devoted to resisting unfavorable thermohygrometric conditions while maintaining favorable living conditions for spirochetes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Survival of Ixodes ricinus (Acari: Ixodidae) Under Challenging Conditions of Temperature and Humidity Is Influenced by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato Infection

2010

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

To determine whether Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.) inßuences tick survival under thermohygrometric stress, Ixodes ricinus (L.) (Acari: Ixodidae) questing ticks were tested under various relative humidities (13, 32, 51.5, 61, and 89% RH) at two different temperatures (12.5 and 25ЊC) and investigated for Borrelia infection. Survival rate of females was highest (77.6%), followed by males (51.6%), and nymphs (43.2%). The thermohygrometric factor that most importantly determined survival was saturation deÞcit (SD). As SD increased, tick survival rate decreased in all stages. Among the 1,500 ticks tested for B. burgdorferi s.l., 34.8% (n ϭ 522) were infected. Adult infection rate (39.6%) was higher than that of nymphs (25.5%). Infection load in real-time polymerase chain reaction ranged from 1 to 1.2 million spirochetes per tick. B. afzelii (39.7%), B. burgdorferi sensu stricto (12.1%), B. garinii (37.9%), B. myamotoi (3.6%), and B. valaisiana (23.8%) were recorded. B. garinii infected signiÞcantly less nymphs than adults whereas B. afzelii displayed the opposite trend. Survival rate of nymphal and adult I. ricinus was signiÞcantly enhanced by infection by B. burgdorferi s.l. ( 2 : nymph, P ϭ 0.008; adult, P ϭ 0.021). In adults, a negative effect of infection on tick survival was observed when spirochete load overcame a threshold estimated at 160,000 spirochetes per tick but not in nymphs. Moreover, ticks infected by B. afzelii survived better than other ticks (infected by other genospecies or not). The results here indicate that infection by B. burgdorferi s.l., and more speciÞcally infection by B. afzelii, confers survival advantages to I. ricinus under challenging thermohygrometric conditions.

show abstract

“…Plasmid lp54 has been implicated as being important for the survival of B. burgdorferi in both tick and mammalian hosts, largely because of the presence of the ospAB and dbpBA operons (Caimano et al, 2005;Hagman et al, 1998;Neelakanta et al, 2007;Shi et al, 2008;Yang et al, 2004). Many other genes encoded on lp54 have been found to be differentially regulated in response to temperature, pH and other mammalian-derived signals, which are presumed to be mediated, at least in part, by RpoS (Caimano et al, 2005;Clifton et al, 2006;Ojaimi et al, 2003;Revel et al, 2002). Consistent with these previous findings, our data provided further evidence that 22 lp54-encoded genes are regulated by RpoS.…”

Section: Genes Regulated By Rrp2 Rpon and Rposmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For B. burgdorferi to maintain its presence in nature, it must transit between these two dramatically different environments, and adapt to them efficiently by altering its gene expression patterns (Fikrig & Narasimhan, 2006;Hovius et al, 2007;Rosa et al, 2005;Singh & Girschick, 2004). Many studies have now shown that certain environmental signals, such as temperature, pH, cell density, nutrient availability and other mammal-specific signals, modulate the temporal expression of a number of borrelial membrane (lipo)proteins (Caimano et al, 2007;Ojaimi et al, 2003;Revel et al, 2002;Stevenson et al, 2006;Yang et al, 2000Yang et al, , 2003b.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transcriptional interplay among the regulators Rrp2, RpoN and RpoS in Borrelia burgdorferi

2008

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The RpoN-RpoS alternative sigma factor pathway is essential for key adaptive responses by Borrelia burgdorferi, particularly those involved in the infection of a mammalian host. A putative response regulator, Rrp2, is ostensibly required for activation of the RpoN-dependent transcription of rpoS. However, questions remain regarding the extent to which the three major constituents of this pathway (Rrp2, RpoN and RpoS) act interdependently. To assess the functional interplay between Rrp2, RpoN and RpoS, we employed microarray analyses to compare gene expression levels in rrp2, rpoN and rpoS mutants of parental strain 297. We identified 98 genes that were similarly regulated by Rrp2, RpoN and RpoS, and an additional 47 genes were determined to be likely regulated by this pathway. The substantial overlap between genes regulated by RpoS and RpoN provides compelling evidence that these two alternative sigma factors form a congruous pathway and that RpoN regulates B. burgdorferi gene expression through RpoS. Although several known B. burgdorferi virulence determinants were regulated by the RpoN-RpoS pathway, a defined function has yet to be ascribed to most of the genes substantially regulated by Rrp2, RpoN and RpoS.

show abstract

Profiling of Temperature-Induced Changes inBorrelia burgdorferiGene Expression by Using Whole Genome Arrays

Cited by 269 publications

References 63 publications

bptA(bbe16) is essential for the persistence of the Lyme disease spirochete,Borrelia burgdorferi, in its natural tick vector

bptA(bbe16) is essential for the persistence of the Lyme disease spirochete,Borrelia burgdorferi, in its natural tick vector

Survival of Ixodes ricinus (Acari: Ixodidae) Under Challenging Conditions of Temperature and Humidity Is Influenced by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato Infection

Transcriptional interplay among the regulators Rrp2, RpoN and RpoS in Borrelia burgdorferi

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About