Identification of a novel transport system in Borrelia burgdorferi that links the inner and outer membranes.

ABSTRACT: Borrelia burgdorferi, the spirochete that causes Lyme disease, is a diderm organism that is similar to Gram-negative organisms in that it contains both an inner and outer membrane. Unlike typical Gram-negative organisms, however, B. burgdorferi lacks lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Using computational genome analyses and structural modeling, we identified a transport system containing six proteins in B. burgdorferi that are all orthologs to proteins found in the lipopolysaccharide transport (LPT) system that links the inner and outer membranes of Gram-negative organisms and is responsible for placing LPS on the surface of these organisms. While B. burgdorferi does not contain LPS, it does encode over 100 different surface-exposed lipoproteins and several major glycolipids, which like LPS are als

SUBMITTER: Bowen HG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10353723 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature