Outer Surface Protein B Is Critical for Borrelia burgdorferi Adherence and Survival within Ixodes Ticks

PLoS Pathogens

Durland Fish¹  Kathleen DePonte²  Fred S Kantor²  Deborah S Beck³  Xin Li³  Utpal Pal³  Erol Fikrig³  Xianzhong Liu³  Girish Neelakanta³ 

[1] Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America;Section of Allergy and Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America;Section of Rheumatology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America

关键词: Borrelia burgdorferi;    Spirochetes;    Nymphs;    Ticks;    Complement system;    Polymerase chain reaction;    Cloning;    Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction;   

DOI  :  10.1371/journal.ppat.0030033

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Public Library of Science

【 摘 要 】

Survival of Borrelia burgdorferi in ticks and mammals is facilitated, at least in part, by the selective expression of lipoproteins. Outer surface protein (Osp) A participates in spirochete adherence to the tick gut. As ospB is expressed on a bicistronic operon with ospA, we have now investigated the role of OspB by generating an OspB-deficient B. burgdorferi and examining its phenotype throughout the spirochete life cycle. Similar to wild-type isolates, the OspB-deficient B. burgdorferi were able to readily infect and persist in mice. OspB-deficient B. burgdorferi were capable of migrating to the feeding ticks but had an impaired ability to adhere to the tick gut and survive within the vector. Furthermore, the OspB-deficient B. burgdorferi bound poorly to tick gut extracts. The complementation of the OspB-deficient spirochete in trans, with a wild-type copy of ospB gene, restored its ability to bind tick gut. Taken together, these data suggest that OspB has an important role within Ixodes scapularis and that B. burgdorferi relies upon multiple genes to efficiently persist in ticks.

【 授权许可】

CC BY