Pleomorphic Variants of Borreliella (syn. Borrelia) burgdorferi Express Evolutionary Distinct Transcriptomes.

ABSTRACT: Borreliella (syn. Borrelia) burgdorferi is a spirochete bacterium that causes tick-borne Lyme disease. Along its lifecycle B. burgdorferi develops several pleomorphic forms with unclear biological and medical relevance. Surprisingly, these morphotypes have never been compared at the global transcriptome level. To fill this void, we grew B. burgdorferi spirochete, round body, bleb, and biofilm-dominated cultures and recovered their transcriptomes by RNAseq profiling. We found that round bodies share similar expression profiles with spirochetes, despite their morphological differences. This sharply contrasts to blebs and biofilms that showed unique transcriptomes, profoundly distinct from spirochetes and round bodies. To better characterize differentially e

SUBMITTER: Corak N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10057712 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature