title: Comparative genetic diversity of Lyme disease bacteria in Northern Californian ticks and their vertebrate hosts.
abstract: Vector-borne pathogens are transmitted between vertebrate hosts and arthropod vectors, two immensely different environments for the pathogen. There is further differentiation among vertebrate hosts that often have complex, species-specific immunological responses to the pathogen. All this presents a heterogeneous environmental and immunological landscape with possible consequences on the population genetic structure of the pathogen. We evaluated the differential genetic diversity of the Lyme disease pathogen, Borrelia burgdorferi, in its vector, the western black-legged tick (Ixodes pacificus), and in its mammal host community using the 5S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer region. We found differences in haplotype distribution of B. burgdorferi in tick populations from two counties in California as well as between a sympatric tick and vertebrate host community. In addition, we found that three closely related haplotypes consistently occurred in high frequency in all sample types. Lastly, our study found lower species diversity of the B. burgdorferi species complex, known as B. burgdorferi sensu lato, in small mammal hosts versus the tick populations in a sympatric study area.
authors.affiliation: San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132, USA. Electronic address: aswei@sfsu.edu.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Swei
authors.affiliation: Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research University of California, Berkeley, CA 94120, USA. Electronic address: vernabowie@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Verna C
authors.initials: VC
authors.lastname: Bowie
authors.affiliation: Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. Electronic address: bowie@berkeley.edu.
authors.forename: Rauri C K
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Bowie
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001096:Arachnid Vectors / Q000382:microbiology*; D025065:Borrelia burgdorferi / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015748:Borrelia burgdorferi Group / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D002140:California / Q000453:epidemiology; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006239:Haplotypes; D018884:Ixodes / Q000382:microbiology; D008193:Lyme Disease / Q000382:microbiology*; D009758:Nymph; D015995:Prevalence; D011817:Rabbits; D014714:Vertebrates
keywords: Borrelia burgdorferi; Haplotype network; Host; Population genetics; Vector-borne zoonotic disease