title: Detection of a large linear plasmid in Borrelia spielmanii isolate.
abstract: Borrelia spielmanii belongs to human pathogenic species within the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex in Europe, which is a causative agent of Lyme disease. So far, the human disease caused by B. spielmanii has been associated with skin manifestations. The aim of the study was to analyze 4 human B. spielmanii isolates by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and to localize genes of 3 important Borrelia proteins: OspA, DbpA, and VlsE. The analysis revealed variation within linear plasmid profiles among the strains; isolate PSigII contained a large plasmid of 100 kb compared with a 50 kb plasmid present in the 3 other B. spielmanii isolates, all carried the genes ospA and dbpA. Differences in the size of linear plasmids among the Borrelia strains may be a result of host-pathogen interactions, as the PSigII strain was the only strain of the 4 tested strains to be isolated from a patient with a previous history of Lyme disease, whereas 3 other patients were diagnosed with this disease for the first time.
authors.affiliation: National Reference Center for Borreliae, Max von Pettenkofer Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany. lencak@saske.sk
authors.forename: Daniela Handžáková
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Lenčáková
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Schulte-Spechtel
authors.forename: Volker
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Fingerle
authors.forename: Branislav
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pet'ko
authors.forename: Bettina
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wilske
mesh_terms: D001898:Borrelia / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field; D005060:Europe; D005798:Genes, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D008193:Lyme Disease / Q000382:microbiology; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics*