Spatial spread and demographic expansion of Lyme borreliosis spirochaetes in Eurasia

Vollmer, Stephanie A.; Feil, Edward J.; Chu, Chen-Yi; Raper, Stephen L.; Cao, Wu‐Chun; Kurtenbach, Klaus; Margos, Gabriele

doi:10.1016/j.meegid.2012.11.014

Cited by 47 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…outer surface protein B, as suggested by Vollmer et al (2013)) could be the same ones that are responsible for facilitating the establishment of localized infection with these bacteria in humans. This would make the transmission of the bacteria more facile between vertebrates of the same class (i.e.…”

Section: Association With Human Cases Of Lyme Borreliosismentioning

confidence: 87%

Imbalanced presence of Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. multilocus sequence types in clinical manifestations of Lyme borreliosis

Coipan

Jahfari

Fonville

et al. 2016

Infection, Genetics and Evolution

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In this study we used typing based on the eight multilocus sequence typing scheme housekeeping genes (MLST) and 5S-23S rDNA intergenic spacer (IGS) to explore the population structure of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato isolates from patients with Lyme borreliosis (LB) and to test the association between the B. burgdorferi s.l. sequence types (ST) and the clinical manifestations they cause in humans. Isolates of B. burgdorferi from 183 LB cases across Europe, with distinct clinical manifestations, and 257 Ixodes ricinus lysates from The Netherlands, were analyzed for this study alone. For completeness, we incorporated in our analysis also 335 European B. burgdorferi s.l. MLST profiles retrieved from literature. Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia bavariensis were associated with human cases of LB while Borrelia garinii, Borrelia lusitaniae and Borrelia valaisiana were associated with questing I. ricinus ticks. B. afzelii was associated with acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans, while B. garinii and B. bavariensis were associated with neuroborreliosis. The samples in our study belonged to 251 different STs, of which 94 are newly described, adding to the overall picture of the genetic diversity of Borrelia genospecies. The fraction of STs that were isolated from human samples was significantly higher for the genospecies that are known to be maintained in enzootic cycles by mammals (B. afzelii, B. bavariensis, and Borrelia spielmanii) than for genospecies that are maintained by birds (B. garinii and B. valaisiana) or lizards (B. lusitaniae). We found six multilocus sequence types that were significantly associated to clinical manifestations in humans and five IGS haplotypes that were associated with the human LB cases. While IGS could perform just as well as the housekeeping genes in the MLST scheme for predicting the infectivity of B. burgdorferi s.l., the advantage of MLST is that it can also capture the differential invasiveness of the various STs.

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Section: Association With Human Cases Of Lyme Borreliosismentioning

confidence: 87%

Imbalanced presence of Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. multilocus sequence types in clinical manifestations of Lyme borreliosis

Coipan

Jahfari

Fonville

et al. 2016

Infection, Genetics and Evolution

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“…Interestingly, phylogenetic studies have shown that B. afzelii has much more spatial genetic structure than B. garinii , which may reflect the migratory potential of their rodent and bird hosts5960. Our literature review found that ground-dwelling birds such as the blackbird, song thrush, European robin and dunnock were common carriers of B. afzelii -infected immature I. ricinus ticks.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Inefficient co-feeding transmission of Borrelia afzelii in two common European songbirds

Heylen

Sprong

Krawczyk

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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The spirochete bacterium Borrelia afzelii is the most common cause of Lyme borreliosis in Europe. This tick-borne pathogen can establish systemic infections in rodents but not in birds. However, several field studies have recovered larval Ixodes ricinus ticks infected with B. afzelii from songbirds suggesting successful transmission of B. afzelii. We reviewed the literature to determine which songbird species were the most frequent carriers of B. afzelii-infected I. ricinus larvae and nymphs. We tested experimentally whether B. afzelii is capable of co-feeding transmission on two common European bird species, the blackbird (Turdus merula) and the great tit (Parus major). For each bird species, four naïve individuals were infested with B. afzelii-infected I. ricinus nymphal ticks and pathogen-free larval ticks. None of the co-feeding larvae tested positive for B. afzelii in blackbirds, but a low percentage of infected larvae (3.33%) was observed in great tits. Transstadial transmission of B. afzelii DNA from the engorged nymphs to the adult ticks was observed in both bird species. However, BSK culture found that these spirochetes were not viable. Our study suggests that co-feeding transmission of B. afzelii is not efficient in these two songbird species.

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“…Although ospA and ospB share a common promoter, the level of ospB transcripts is much higher than those of ospA in experimentally infected mice (Liang et al, 2004). The loss of ospB , which appears to function predominantly during infections within a mammalian host, may therefore be due to the host specificity of B. garinii , a bird-adapted species (Vollmer et al, 2013). …”

Section: Phylogenomicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Besides clinical applications, comparing the genomes of B. burgdorferi s.l. species helps identify genes associated with ecological traits such as host specificity by comparing the genomes from species differing in preferred reservoir hosts (Kurtenbach et al, 2006; Margos et al, 2011; Vollmer et al, 2013). A major challenge for identifying phenotype-associated genetic variations is that many, if not the majority of, genomic differences between B. burgdorferi s.l.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary genomics of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato: Findings, hypotheses, and the rise of hybrids

Qiu

Martin

2014

Infection, Genetics and Evolution

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Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (B. burgdorferi s.l.), the group of bacterial species represented by Lyme Disease pathogens, has one of the most complex and variable genomic architectures among prokaryotes. Showing frequent recombination within and limited gene flow among geographic populations, the B. burgdorferi s.l. genomes provides an excellent window into the processes of bacterial evolution at both within- and between-population levels. Comparative analyses of B. burgdorferi s.l. genomes revealed a highly dynamic plasmid composition but a conservative gene repertoire. Gene duplication and loss as well as sequence variations at loci encoding surface-localized lipoproteins (e.g., the PF54 genes) are strongly associated with adaptive differences between species. There are a great many conserved intergenic spacer sequences that are candidates for cis-regulatory elements and non-coding RNAs. Recombination among coexisting strains occurs at a rate approximately three times the mutation rate. The coexistence of a large number of genomic groups within local B. burgdorferi s.l. populations may be driven by immune-mediated diversifying selection targeting major antigen loci as well as by adaptation to multiple host species. Questions remain regarding the ecological causes (e.g., climate change, host movements, or new adaptations) of the ongoing range expansion of B. burgdorferi s.l. and on the genomic variations associated with its ecological and clinical variability. Anticipating an explosive growth of the number of B. burgdorferi s.l. genomes sampled from both within and among species, we propose genome-based methods to test adaptive mechanisms and to identify molecular bases of phenotypic variations. Genome sequencing is also necessary to monitor the ongoing genetic admixture of previously isolated species and populations in North America and elsewhere.

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Spatial spread and demographic expansion of Lyme borreliosis spirochaetes in Eurasia

Cited by 47 publications

References 39 publications

Imbalanced presence of Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. multilocus sequence types in clinical manifestations of Lyme borreliosis

Imbalanced presence of Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. multilocus sequence types in clinical manifestations of Lyme borreliosis

Inefficient co-feeding transmission of Borrelia afzelii in two common European songbirds

Evolutionary genomics of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato: Findings, hypotheses, and the rise of hybrids

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