Potentially conflicting selective forces that shape the vls antigenic variation system in Borrelia burgdorferi.

ABSTRACT: Changing environmental conditions present an evolutionary challenge for all organisms. The environment of microbial pathogens, including the adaptive immune responses of the infected host, changes rapidly and is lethal to the pathogen lineages that cannot quickly adapt. The dynamic immune environment creates strong selective pressures favoring microbial pathogen lineages with antigenic variation systems that maximize the antigenic divergence among expressed antigenic variants. However, divergence among expressed antigens may be constrained by other molecular features such as the efficient expression of functional proteins. We computationally examined potential conflicting selection pressures on antigenic variation systems using the vls antigenic variation system in Borrelia burgdorferi as

SUBMITTER: Zhou W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4182130 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature