Population Biology of Lyme Borreliosis Spirochetes

Borrelia chilensis, a new member of theBorrelia burgdorferisensu lato complex that extends the range of this genospecies in theSouthernHemisphere

“…It is generally accepted that the North American and European populations of B. burgdorferi s.l. are related but have evolved independently (Margos et al, 2008; Qiu et al, 2008; Hoen et al, 2009; Kurtenbach et al, 2010). In this context, it could be suggested that the ancestors of B. chilensis and I. stilesi migrated from North America with rodent hosts in the Great American Interchange after the closing of the Isthmus of Panama 3 million years ago (Knowles and Richards, 2005; Kirby et al, 2008).…”

Population genetics, taxonomy, phylogeny and evolution of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato

“…Their analysis also allows inferences of the temporal evolution of LB species. However, ascertaining this order using a single gene such as flaB , or even MLSA, proved difficult due to low confidence values of internal branches in phylogenies in which all STs of the European species were included (Fukunaga et al, 1996c; Kurtenbach et al, 2010). Several factors may be responsible for this: 1) internal branches representing species divisions are extremely short suggesting that the speciation events, in evolutionary terms, occurred in quick succession.…”

“…The branch length of the outgroup is not according to scale as indicated by slashes. While in the MLST tree LB species cluster monophyletically, this is not the case using ospC sequences (original figure A from Population Biology of Lyme Borreliosis Spirochetes; Kurtenbach et al [2010], DOI: 10.1002/9780470600122.ch12; Copyright (2010, John Wiley & Sons); reprinted with permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; original figure B Margos et al [2009], doi 10.1128/AEM.00116-09, reproduced and modified with permission from the American Society for Microbiology)…”

Is Predominant Clonal Evolution a Common Evolutionary Adaptation to Parasitism in Pathogenic Parasitic Protozoa, Fungi, Bacteria, and Viruses?

“…b Griffing et al (2011) b,c Guttman and Stavrinides (2010) b,e Grigg and Sundar (2009) c Hanage et al (2006) a,b Heitman (2006) b,c Henriques-Normark et al (2008) b,e Herges et al (2012) e Kurtenbach et al (2010) b Iwagami et al (2012) e Maiden (2006Maiden ( a , 2008 b Karunaweera et al (2008) e Martin et al (2010) e Khan et al (2011) b,e Leblois et al (2011) b Prasad Narra & Ochman (2006) a,b Lehmann et al (2004) c,e…”

“…Borrelia burgdorferi in North America is subdivided into discrete clusters (near-clades) revealed by phylogeography (Kurtenbach et al, 2010).…”