Lone Star Tick-Infecting Borreliae Are Most Closely Related to the Agent of Bovine Borreliosis
Open Access
- 1 February 2001
- journal article
- Published by American Society for Microbiology in Journal of Clinical Microbiology
- Vol. 39 (2) , 494-497
- https://doi.org/10.1128/jcm.39.2.494-497.2001
Abstract
Although Borrelia theileri , the agent of bovine borreliosis, was described at the turn of the century (in 1903), its relationship with borreliae causing Lyme disease or relapsing fever remains undescribed. We tested the previously published hypothesis that spirochetes infecting Lone Star ticks ( Amblyomma americanum ) may comprise B. theileri by analyzing the 16S ribosomal DNAs (rDNAs) and flagellin genes of these spirochetes. B. theileri , the Amblyomma agent, and B. miyamotoi formed a natural group or clade distinct from but most closely related to that of the relapsing fever spirochetes. B. theileri and the Amblyomma agent were 97 and 98% similar at the nucleotide level within the analyzed portions of the 16S rDNA and the flagellin gene respectively, suggesting a recent divergence. The agent of bovine borreliosis might be explored as a surrogate antigen for the as-yet-uncultivatable Amblyomma agent in studies designed to explore the etiology of a Lyme disease-like infection associated with Lone Star ticks.Keywords
This publication has 30 references indexed in Scilit:
- Borrelia burgdorferi Sensu Stricto, a Bacterial Species "Made in the U.S.A."?International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, 1997
- Phylogenetic Relationships among Tick Subfamilies (Ixodida: Ixodidae: Argasidae) Based on the 18S Nuclear rDNA GeneMolecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 1997
- Identification of an Uncultivable Borrelia Species in the Hard Tick Amblyomma americanum: Possible Agent of a Lyme Disease-like IllnessThe Journal of Infectious Diseases, 1996
- Does Lyme Disease Occur in the South?: A Survey of Emerging Tick-Borne Infections in the RegionThe Lancet Healthy Longevity, 1996
- Epidemiologic and Diagnostic Studies of Patients with Suspected Early Lyme Disease, Missouri, 1990-1993The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 1995
- CLUSTAL W: improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, position-specific gap penalties and weight matrix choiceNucleic Acids Research, 1994
- Diversity of Borrelia burgdorfeii Sensu Lato Evidenced by Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism of rrf (5S)-rrl (23S) Intergenic Spacer AmpliconsInternational Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, 1994
- Genomic Analysis of Borrelia japonica Sp. Nov. Isolated from Ixodes ovatus in JapanMicrobiology and Immunology, 1993
- Pathophysiology of the Lyme Disease Spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, in Ixodid TicksClinical Infectious Diseases, 1989
- Amblyomma americanum : a Potential Vector of Lyme Disease in New JerseyScience, 1984