Multilocus sequence typing of clinical Borreliella afzelii strains: population structure and differential ability to disseminate in humans.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Lyme borreliosis in humans results in a range of clinical manifestations, thought to be partly due to differences in the pathogenicity of the infecting strain. This study compared European human clinical strains of Borreliella afzelii (previously named Borrelia afzelii) using multilocus sequence typing (MLST) to determine their spatial distribution across Europe and to establish whether there are associations between B. afzelii genotypes and specific clinical manifestations of Lyme borreliosis. For this purpose, typing was performed on 63 strains, and data on a further 245 strains were accessed from the literature.

Results

All 308 strains were categorized into 149 sequence types (STs), 27 of which are described here for the first time. Phylogenetic and goeBURST an

SUBMITTER: Gallais F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6027761 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature