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PMID: 8982001 Published · ppublish English Journal Article

Homology throughout the multiple 32-kilobase circular plasmids present in Lyme disease spirochetes.

Journal of bacteriology ·Vol. 179 ·No. 1 ·1997-01-00 ·Pages 217-27

Casjens S, van Vugt R, Tilly K, Rosa PA, Stevenson B

Abstract

We have characterized seven different 32-kb circular plasmids carried by Borrelia burgdorferi isolate B31. Restriction endonuclease recognition site mapping and partial sequencing of these plasmids indicated that all seven are probably closely related to each other throughout their lengths and have substantial relationships to cp8.3, an 8.3-kb circular plasmid of B. burgdorferi sensu lato isolate Ip21. With the addition of the seven 32-kb plasmids, this bacterial strain is known to carry at least 10 linear and 9 circular plasmids. Variant cultures of B. burgdorferi B31 lacking one or more of the 32-kb circular plasmids are viable and, at least in some cases, infectious. We have examined a number of different natural isolates of Lyme disease borreliae and found that all of the B. burgdorferi sensu stricto isolates and most of the B. burgdorferi sensu lato isolates tested appear to carry multiple 32-kb circular plasmids related to those of B. burgdorferi B31. The ubiquity of these plasmids suggests that they may be important in the natural life cycle of these organisms. They may be highly conjugative plasmids or prophage genomes, which could prove to be useful in genetically manipulating B. burgdorferi.

MeSH Terms
Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins/genetics Borrelia burgdorferi Group/genetics Molecular Sequence Data Molecular Weight Open Reading Frames/genetics Plasmids/chemistry,genetics Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length Restriction Mapping Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
Chemicals
Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins
Authors & Affiliations
5 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Casjens S
Department of Oncological Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City 84132, USA. [email protected]
van Vugt R
Tilly K
Rosa P A
Stevenson B
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Article Info
Journal
Journal of bacteriology
Abbr.
J Bacteriol
ISSN
0021-9193
DOI
10.1128/jb.179.1.217-227.1997
Email
[email protected]
Published
1997-01-00
Pages
217-27
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
2985120R
PMCID
PMC178682
Subset
IM
Databases
GENBANK
U44912, U44913, U44914, U60639, U60640, U60641, U60642, U60963, U60964, U60965, U72996, U72997, U72998, U72999, U73000, U73001
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1128/jb.179.1.217-227.1997 PMC Full Text View journal details
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