Genetic and phenotypic characterization of Borrelia burgdorferi strains isolated from Ixodes ricinus ticks in the Province of Bolzano, Italy

Lyme disease is caused by three borrelial species, B. burgdorferi sensu stricto, B. garinii and Borrelia group VS461. In a restricted biotope of the Bolzano province, in the Caldaro community, five clones of two borrelial variants were isolated from Ixodes ricinus ticks. A preliminary serological st...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe New microbiologica Vol. 18; no. 2; p. 169
Main Authors Cacciapuoti, B, Ciceroni, L, Ciarrocchi, S, Khoury, C, Simeoni, J
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Italy 01.04.1995
Subjects
Animals
Antibodies, Bacterial
Antigens, Bacterial - analysis
Antigens, Bacterial - chemistry
Arachnid Vectors - microbiology
Bacterial Proteins - analysis
Bacterial Proteins - chemistry
Borrelia burgdorferi Group - genetics
Borrelia burgdorferi Group - immunology
Borrelia burgdorferi Group - isolation & purification
DNA, Bacterial - analysis
Female
Italy
Male
Molecular Weight
Nymph
Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length
Ticks - microbiology
Italy
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Summary:Lyme disease is caused by three borrelial species, B. burgdorferi sensu stricto, B. garinii and Borrelia group VS461. In a restricted biotope of the Bolzano province, in the Caldaro community, five clones of two borrelial variants were isolated from Ixodes ricinus ticks. A preliminary serological study showed that the two variants cross-reacted with B. burgdorferi B31 and B. garinii N34 strains, respectively. The isolates were genomically related with strains B31 and N34, respectively, sharing a similar plasmid and restriction fragment length polymorphism profile with these strains. The phenotypic pattern of the Caldaro isolates-namely their protein and antigenic profile-showed infra-subspecific variation compared to related strains B31 and N34 respectively. The observed phenotypic variability between strains isolated from the same biotope and in the same tick host strongly indicated the variability of gene-encoded characters is a constant characteristic of borrelial strains, even when from the same ecological niche.
ISSN:1121-7138