Transcriptional regulation of the Borrelia burgdorferi antigenically variable VlsE surface protein.

ABSTRACT: The Lyme disease agent Borrelia burgdorferi can persistently infect humans and other animals despite host active immune responses. This is facilitated, in part, by the vls locus, a complex system consisting of the vlsE expression site and an adjacent set of 11 to 15 silent vls cassettes. Segments of nonexpressed cassettes recombine with the vlsE region during infection of mammalian hosts, resulting in combinatorial antigenic variation of the VlsE outer surface protein. We now demonstrate that synthesis of VlsE is regulated during the natural mammal-tick infectious cycle, being activated in mammals but repressed during tick colonization. Examination of cultured B. burgdorferi cells indicated that the spirochete controls vlsE transcription levels in response to environmental cues. Analysis o

SUBMITTER: Bykowski T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1483003 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature