Stage-specific global alterations in the transcriptomes of Lyme disease spirochetes during tick feeding and following mammalian host adaptation.

ABSTRACT: Borrelia burgdorferi, the agent of Lyme disease, is maintained in nature within an enzootic cycle involving a mammalian reservoir and an Ixodes sp. tick vector. The transmission, survival and pathogenic potential of B. burgdorferi depend on the bacterium's ability to modulate its transcriptome as it transits between vector and reservoir host. Herein, we employed an amplification-microarray approach to define the B. burgdorferi transcriptomes in fed larvae, fed nymphs and in mammalian host-adapted organisms cultivated in dialysis membrane chambers. The results show clearly that spirochetes exhibit unique expression profiles during each tick stage and during cultivation within the mammal; importantly, none of these profiles resembles that exhibited by in vitro grown organisms. Profound shift

SUBMITTER: Iyer R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4429771 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature