Taxonomy of Borrelia spp

An increasing number of phenotypically heterogeneous borrelia isolates have been obtained by culture. Genetic analysis of some of them suggest that a reorganisation in delineation of the different species within the genus Borrelia may be necessary. Specifically increasing numbers of variants phenoty...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inScandinavian journal of infectious diseases. Supplementum Vol. 77; p. 108
Main Authors Wilske, B, Anderson, J F, Baranton, G, Barbour, A G, Hovind-Hougen, K, Johnson, R C, Preac-Mursic, V
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England 1991
Subjects
Animals
Antigens, Bacterial - analysis
Borrelia - classification
Borrelia - genetics
Borrelia - immunology
Borrelia - ultrastructure
Borrelia burgdorferi Group - classification
Borrelia burgdorferi Group - genetics
Borrelia burgdorferi Group - immunology
Borrelia burgdorferi Group - ultrastructure
DNA Probes
DNA, Bacterial - chemistry
Europe
Humans
North America
Nucleic Acid Hybridization
Plasmids
Serotyping
North America
Europe
Online AccessGet more information

Cover

More Information
Summary:An increasing number of phenotypically heterogeneous borrelia isolates have been obtained by culture. Genetic analysis of some of them suggest that a reorganisation in delineation of the different species within the genus Borrelia may be necessary. Specifically increasing numbers of variants phenotypically different from the American type strain of B. burgdorferi have been described. In this workshop experts have discussed phenotypic and genotypic characters for (a) differentiation of B. burgdorferi strains from other borrelia and from treponemes, (b) characterization of B. burgdorferi isolates at the subspecies level. Ultrastructure was discussed by K. Hovind-Hougen, antigen structure by B. Wilske and genotypic characters by G. Baranton, A. G. Barbour, R. C. Johnson and V. Preac-Mursic. J. F. Anderson discussed differences between strains isolated from a wide range of vectors and hosts in North America. The outcome of the workshop was that B. burgdorferi may comprise different genomic species which however share common epitopes recognized by certain monoclonal antibodies. At the subspecies level a broad heterogeneity was demonstrated using methods as restriction endonuclease analysis, hybridization with whole B. burgdorferi-DNA or specific probes as well as plasmid analysis. A serotyping system based on monoclonal antibody reactivity against the outer surface protein OspA was proposed. A comparison of the different typing methods is impaired by use of different strains for analysis. In the future a broad variety of phenotypically different and defined strains need to be analysed for genotypic clusters and later on reexamined for phenotypic characters. To accomplish this close cooperation of different research groups is necessary.
ISSN:0300-8878