Colony formation in solid medium by the relapsing fever spirochetes Borrelia hermsii and Borrelia turicatae.

ABSTRACT: Relapsing fever (RF) in North America is caused primarily by the spirochete Borrelia hermsii and is associated with the bite of its tick vector Ornithodoros hermsi. Although this spirochete was known long before the discovery of the Lyme disease (LD) spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, basic methods to facilitate the study of B. hermsii have lagged behind. One important technique to expedite the study of the molecular biology and pathogenesis of B. hermsii would be a reliable method to grow and clone these bacteria in solid medium, which we now describe. We have defined the solidifying agent, plating temperature, oxygen concentration, and pH for the efficient plating of two species of RF spirochetes, B. hermsii and Borrelia turicatae. Importantly, this technique allowed us to successfully is

SUBMITTER: Raffel SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5803322 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature