Borrelia burgdorferi

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Borrelia burgdorferi
Borrelia burgdorferi
Scientific classification e
Domain: Bacteria
Phylum: Spirochaetes
Order: Spirochaetales
Family: Spirochaetaceae
Genus: Borrelia
Species: B. burgdorferi
Binomial name
Borrelia burgdorferi
Johnson et al. 1984 emend. Baranton et al. 1992

Borrelia burgdorferi is a species of Gram-negative bacteria of the spirochete class of the genus Borrelia.[1] B. burgdorferi is predominant in North America, but also exists in Europe, and is the agent of Lyme disease.

Lyme disease is a zoonotic, vector-borne disease transmitted by ticks; the causative agent is named after the researcher Willy Burgdorfer, who first isolated the bacterium in 1982.[2] B. burgdorferi is one of the few pathogenic bacteria that can survive without iron, having replaced all of its iron-sulfur cluster enzymes with enzymes that use manganese, thus avoiding the problem many pathogenic bacteria face in acquiring iron. It takes more than 24 hours of attachment for transfer of B. burgdorferi, making regular "tick checks" helpful in preventing infection. [3]

B. burgdorferi infections have been linked to non-Hodgkin lymphomas.[4]

B. burgdorferi (B31 strain) was the third microbial genome ever sequenced, following the sequencing of both Haemophilus influenzae and Mycoplasma genitalium in 1995, and contains 910,725 base pairs and 853 genes.[5] The sequencing method used was whole genome shotgun. The sequencing project, completed and published in Nature in 1997, was conducted at The Institute for Genomic Research.

Lyme disease clinical features include the characteristic bull's eye rash and erythema chronicum migrans (a rash which spreads peripherally and spares the central part), as well as myocarditis, cardiomyopathy, arrythmias, arthritis, arthralgia, meningitis, neuropathies and facial nerve palsy.

Characteristic "bull's eye" rash of Lyme disease

It is common in the northeastern, midwest and western United States.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Samuels DS; Radolf, JD (editors) (2010). Borrelia: Molecular Biology, Host Interaction and Pathogenesis. Caister Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-904455-58-5. 
  2. ^ Burgdorfer W, Barbour AG, Hayes SF, Benach JL, Grunwaldt E, Davis JP (June 1982). "Lyme disease-a tick-borne spirochetosis?". Science 216 (4552): 1317–9. Bibcode 1982Sci...216.1317B. doi:10.1126/science.7043737. PMID 7043737. 
  3. ^ Galdwin, Mark; Trattler, Bill (2009). Spirochetes: Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple. MedMaster, Inc. ISBN 978-0-940780-81-1. 
  4. ^ Guidoboni M, Ferreri AJ, Ponzoni M, Doglioni C, Dolcetti R (January 2006). "Infectious agents in mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue-type lymphomas: pathogenic role and therapeutic perspectives". Clinical Lymphoma & Myeloma 6 (4): 289–300. doi:10.3816/CLM.2006.n.003. PMID 16507206. 
  5. ^ Fraser CM, Casjens S, Huang WM, et al. (December 1997). "Genomic sequence of a Lyme disease spirochaete, Borrelia burgdorferi". Nature 390 (6660): 580–6. Bibcode 1997Natur.390..580F. doi:10.1038/37551. PMID 9403685. 

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[edit] External links

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