title: A hard tick relapsing fever group spirochete in a Brazilian Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus.
abstract: Tick-borne diseases usually comprise a complex epidemiological and ecological network connecting the vector, pathogen, and a group of host species. Symptoms associated with Lyme disease have been reported in Brazil, but no Borrelia sp. has been definitively related to these events. Here we have identified a B. lonestari/B. theileri-related spirochete DNA in the cattle tick Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus from Brazil. Four hundred R. microplus and 80 Amblyomma cajennense ticks were screened, and only 1 horse-fed R. microplus was infected. A Borrelia sp. 16S rDNA sequence was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) from the total tick DNA with 99% similarity to B. theileri and B. lonestari. Partial flaB sequence was also obtained, demonstrating 96% similarity to the B. lonestari flagellin gene, and the resultant putative amino acid sequence demonstrated 97% identity to B. lonestari flagellin. Moreover, partial glpQ sequence demonstrated 92% similarity to the B. lonestari gene, with a putative amino acid sequence 90% identical to the B. lonestari glycerophosphodiester phosphodiesterase. Phylogenetic analyses clearly include this Brazilian Borrelia sp., denoted "Borrelia," sp-BR in a group of spirochetes aligned with B. theileri and B. lonestari. Thus, hard tick relapsing fever group spirochetes represent a clade of widespread bacteria and herein we describe the first molecular identification of a Borrelia sp. in South America.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Genética Molecular de Eucariontes e Simbiontes, Departamento de Genética, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: Luciana A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Yparraguirre
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Machado-Ferreira
authors.forename: Amy J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Ullmann
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Piesman
authors.forename: Nordin S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Zeidner
authors.forename: Carlos A G
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Soares
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001096:Arachnid Vectors / Q000382:microbiology*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D001898:Borrelia / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001938:Brazil; D002417:Cattle; D005260:Female; D005408:Flagellin / Q000235:genetics; D006736:Horses; D026863:Ixodidae / Q000382:microbiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010727:Phosphoric Diester Hydrolases / Q000235:genetics; D010802:Phylogeny; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D012061:Relapsing Fever / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000635:transmission; D048494:Rhipicephalus / Q000382:microbiology*; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D013984:Tick Infestations / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D005408:Flagellin; C416532:flaB flagellin; D010727:Phosphoric Diester Hydrolases; C087921:glpQ protein, Bacteria