title: Fitness variation of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto strains in mice.
abstract: Lyme borreliosis in North America is caused by the tick-borne spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, a zoonotic bacterium that is able to persistently infect a wide range of vertebrate species. Given the pronounced strain structure of B. burgdorferi in the northeastern United States, we asked whether the fitness of the different genotypes varies among susceptible vertebrate hosts. The transmission dynamics of two genetically divergent human isolates of B. burgdorferi, BL206 and B348, were analyzed experimentally in white-footed mice and in C3H/HeNCrl mice over a time period of almost 3 months. We found that the initially high transmission efficiency from white-footed mice to ticks declined sharply for isolate B348 but remained considerably high for isolate BL206. In contrast, in C3H/HeNCrl mice, high transmission efficiency persisted for both isolates. Our findings provide proof-of-principle evidence for intrinsic fitness variation of B. burgdorferi strains in vertebrate host species, perhaps indicating the beginnings of adaptive radiation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale School of Medicine, Yale University, 60 College Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA. klara_hanincova@nymc.edu
authors.forename: Klára
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hanincová
authors.forename: Nicholas H
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Ogden
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Diuk-Wasser
authors.forename: Christopher J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Pappas
authors.forename: Radha
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Iyer
authors.forename: Durland
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fish
authors.forename: Ira
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Schwartz
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kurtenbach
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D025065:Borrelia burgdorferi / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D008193:Lyme Disease / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000635:transmission*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H / Q000382:microbiology; D010542:Peromyscus / Q000382:microbiology; D013987:Ticks / Q000382:microbiology