Plasmid analysis of Borrelia burgdorferi, the Lyme disease agent.
A simple procedure for extraction of plasmid-enriched DNA from borreliae was used in a plasmid analysis of 13 strains of the Lyme disease agent, Borrelia burgdorferi. The extracted DNA was subjected to low-percentage agarose gel electrophoresis and examined either directly by ethidium bromide staining or after hybridization of the plasmids in situ with a DNA probe for the gene encoding the major outer membrane protein OspA. Each isolate had four to seven discernible plasmids of various sizes. Only 2 of the 13 strains had the same plasmid profile. The ospA gene probe hybridized to large plasmids to strains from both North America and Europe. A strain which had been passaged many times was found to have lost two of the six plasmids originally present. These findings indicate the potential usefulness of plasmid analysis as a strain-typing procedure and for identifying possible plasmid-conferred virulence factors.
Barbour
A G
AG
Department of Microbiology, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio 78284.
D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D001898:Borrelia / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis*; D004587:Electrophoresis, Agar Gel; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D010957:Plasmids; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial