Investigation of the genes involved in antigenic switching at the vlsE locus in Borrelia burgdorferi: an essential role for the RuvAB branch migrase.

ABSTRACT: Persistent infection by pathogenic organisms requires effective strategies for the defense of these organisms against the host immune response. A common strategy employed by many pathogens to escape immune recognition and clearance is to continually vary surface epitopes through recombinational shuffling of genetic information. Borrelia burgdorferi, a causative agent of Lyme borreliosis, encodes a surface-bound lipoprotein, VlsE. This protein is encoded by the vlsE locus carried at the right end of the linear plasmid lp28-1. Adjacent to the expression locus are 15 silent cassettes carrying information that is moved into the vlsE locus through segmental gene conversion events. The protein players and molecular mechanism of recombinational switching at vlsE have not been characterized. In th

SUBMITTER: Dresser AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2779866 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature