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Category: Clinical Microbiology
Borrelia: a Diverse and Ubiquitous Genus of Tick-Borne Pathogens, Page 1 of 2
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Although the new species associated with Lyme disease were more closely related to previously known Borrelia species than they were to treponemes, leptospires, or other spirochetes, the new species were clearly distinct from the relapsing fever species on the basis of DNA relatedness. As investigators in North America, Europe, and Asia gathered more samples from ticks and animals in the field, isolates that could not be classified as Borrelia burgdorferi, Borrelia afzelii, or Borrelia garinii were noted. The report of isolates of B. burgdorferi from Ixodes scapularis in Texas is in doubt, because similar organisms were allegedly also recovered from fleas and ticks that are incompetent as vectors. One of the isolates of B. burgdorferi from a study of I. scapularis ticks, was also highly similar to a commonly used laboratory strain of B. burgdorferi, and a study of five Texas isolates of B. burgdorferi demonstrated that the isolates were noninfectious for mice, a characteristic of serially cultivated isolates. The study of the outbreak at the summer camp in North Carolina found that 97% of 588 ticks collected from vegetation were A. americanum, 2% were Dermacentor variabilis, and only 2 (0.3%) were I. scapularis. Although it is more distant from members of the Lyme disease group than from those of the relapsing fever group, the species of the third major group are transmitted by hard ticks-prostriate ticks in the cases of B. miyamotoi and the new Borrelia sp. and metastriate ticks in the cases of B. theileri and B. lonestari.
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Unrooted neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree of selected Borrelia species. 16S rRNA sequences corresponding to base positions 56 to 1345 of the B. burgdorferi 16S rRNA gene (GenBank accession number M88329) were aligned and analyzed by using the ClustalX program package. Selected other Borrelia species included in the analysis (with accession numbers given in parentheses) are B. bissettii (AJ224141), B. andersonii (L46701), B. afzelii (X85189), B. garinii (AJ009749), B. turdi (D67024), B. tanukii (D67023), B. japonica (U42299), B. valaisiana (X98232), B. lusitaniae (X98229), B. miyamotoi (D45192), B. lonestari (U23211), B. theileri (U38375), B. anserina (U42284), B. coriaceae (U42286), B. persica (U42297), B. crocidurae (U42302), B. recurrentis (U42300), B. turicatae (U42299), B. hennsii (U42292), and Borrelia spp. from a patient in Spain (U28502), a dog from Florida (L37837), and an owl from Washington State (AFI16903). The outgroup is the spirochete Treponema pallidum (M88726). Three major groupings are demarcated, and the types of ticks that are the usual vectors of members of each are indicated. B. recurrentis is the only known Borrelia species transmitted by an insect instead of a tick.
Unrooted neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree of selected Borrelia species. 16S rRNA sequences corresponding to base positions 56 to 1345 of the B. burgdorferi 16S rRNA gene (GenBank accession number M88329) were aligned and analyzed by using the ClustalX program package. Selected other Borrelia species included in the analysis (with accession numbers given in parentheses) are B. bissettii (AJ224141), B. andersonii (L46701), B. afzelii (X85189), B. garinii (AJ009749), B. turdi (D67024), B. tanukii (D67023), B. japonica (U42299), B. valaisiana (X98232), B. lusitaniae (X98229), B. miyamotoi (D45192), B. lonestari (U23211), B. theileri (U38375), B. anserina (U42284), B. coriaceae (U42286), B. persica (U42297), B. crocidurae (U42302), B. recurrentis (U42300), B. turicatae (U42299), B. hennsii (U42292), and Borrelia spp. from a patient in Spain (U28502), a dog from Florida (L37837), and an owl from Washington State (AFI16903). The outgroup is the spirochete Treponema pallidum (M88726). Three major groupings are demarcated, and the types of ticks that are the usual vectors of members of each are indicated. B. recurrentis is the only known Borrelia species transmitted by an insect instead of a tick.
New Borrelia species associated with hard ticks
New Borrelia species associated with hard ticks