ABSTRACT: Transcriptional profiling the 150 kb linear plasmid of Borrelia turicatae implicates an important role in vector colonization and establishing mammalian infection.
Project description:As vector-borne pathogens transit between the arthropod and vertebrate, adaptation is key for survival as each host varies and initiates unique defense mechanisms. An environmental signal that relapsing fever (RF) and Lyme causing spirochetes detect is the change of temperature between vector and mammal, yet incomplete genomes have hindered progress in understanding the genetic constituents expressed during tick colonization. We conducted a combined transcriptional and genomic sequence analysis to further assemble the ~150 kb linear plasmid (lp150) of Borrelia turicatae, a causative agent of RF borreliosis. Contiguous sequences (contigs), which were originally generated by Sanger sequencing, contained open reading frames (ORFs) identified to be up-regulated by the spirochetes when grown under tick-like conditions compared to the mammal. To aid in assembling the contigs, a PacBio RS I Single Molecule Real-Time DNA sequencing approach was used, given extended nucleotide reads over several thousand base pairs. A 36 kb locus was identified toward the 3‘ end of lp150, and expression of the ORFs was verified in the tick and mammal. We report the most complete version of lp150, and this study indicates that the plasmid likely facilitates vector colonization and establishing early mammalian infection
Project description:Lyme disease is a result from an infection by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, and is the leading vector-borne disease in North America. Due to the genomic and proteomic variability of different B. burgdorferi isolates, the study and further comparison of their proteome is key to understand the biology and infectivity of these spirochetes. Mass spectrometry-based proteomics was used to assemble peptide datasets of laboratory isolates B31, MM1, B31-ML23, and the infective isolates B31-5A4, B31-A3, and 297, as well as other public datasets, and is publicly available as the Borrelia PeptideAtlas (http://www.peptideatlas.org/builds/borrelia/). These datasets include information on total proteome, secretome, and membrane proteome of the B. burgdorferi.
Project description:The overall goal of these experiments was to determine how human cells respond to ontegrin binding by Borrelia burgdorferi. Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne infection in the Northern hemisphere, yet little is understood about the pathogenic mechanisms of the causative agent, Borrelia burgdorferi. Cells in culture were infected with the bacteria that do and do not express the beta3 integrin ligand P66, which are otherwise isogenic. As additional controls, uninfected cells were also included in the analyses.
Project description:The overall goal of these experiments was to determine how human cells respond to ontegrin binding by Borrelia burgdorferi. Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne infection in the Northern hemisphere, yet little is understood about the pathogenic mechanisms of the causative agent, Borrelia burgdorferi. Cells in culture were infected with the bacteria that do and do not express the beta3 integrin ligand P66, which are otherwise isogenic. As additional controls, uninfected cells were also included in the analyses.
