Natural selection and recombination at host-interacting lipoprotein loci drive genome diversification of Lyme disease and related bacteria
Lyme disease (also called Lyme borreliosis in Europe), a condition caused by spirochete bacteria of the genus <i>Borrelia</i>, transmitted by hard-bodied <i>Ixodes</i> ticks, is currently the most prevalent and rapidly expanding tick-borne disease in the United States and Europe. <i>Borrelia</i> interspecies and intraspecies genome comparisons of Lyme disease-related bacteria are essential to reconstruct their evolutionary origins, track epidemiological spread, identify molecular mechanisms of human pathogenicity, and design molecular and ecological approaches to disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. These Lyme disease-associated bacteria harbor complex genomes that encode many genes that do not have homologs in other organisms and are distributed across multiple linear and circular plasmids. The functional significance of most of the plasmid-borne genes and the multipartite genome organization itself remains unknown. Here we sequenced, assembled, and analyzed whole genomes of 47 <i>Borrelia</i> isolates from around the world, including multiple isolates of the human pathogenic species. Our analysis elucidates the evolutionary origins, historical migration, and sources of genomic variability of these clinically important pathogens. We have developed web-based software tools (BorreliaBase.org) to facilitate dissemination and continued comparative analysis of <i>Borrelia</i> genomes to identify determinants of human pathogenicity.
Authors
- Adriana Marques (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5403-4551)
- Ana Cláudia Norte (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7833-4463)
- Sabrina Hepner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-7768-4867)
- Hiroki Kawabata
- Emmanuel F. Mongodin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3833-7437)
- Saymon Akther (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9084-9379)
- Isabel Lopes de Carvalho (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4693-3952)
- Gabriele Margos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5304-9615)
- Volker Fingerle (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3835-5646)
- Lia Di (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1957-6475)
- Claire M. Fraser (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1462-2428)
- Weigang Qiu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4585-1872)
- Maria Sofia Núncio (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5182-6150)
- Nataliia Rudenko (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0506-2249)
- Maryna Golovchenko
- Steven E. Schutzer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7893-6509)
- Richard Morgan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8721-4479)
- Sherwood Casjens (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1213-7130)
- Benjamin J. Luft (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9008-7004)
- Xiaohua Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1508-7220)
Institutions
- Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (US)
- New England Biolabs (United States) (US)
- The Graduate Center, CUNY (US)
- University of Maryland, Baltimore (US)
- City University of New York (US)
- Cornell University (US)
- University of Utah (US)
- Hunter College (US)
- National Institute of Infectious Diseases (JP)
- Stony Brook School (US)
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (US)
- Águas de Portugal (Portugal) (PT)
- Institute of Parasitology (CZ)
- Czech Academy of Sciences, Biology Centre (CZ)
- Rutgers New Jersey Medical School (US)
- Stony Brook University (US)
- University of Coimbra (PT)
Publication Details
- Journal
- mBio
- Published
- 2024-08-15
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1128/mbio.01749-24
- Citations
- 13
- Primary Topic
- Vector-borne infectious diseases
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 6.70
Funders
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
- City University of New York
- Steven and Alexandra Cohen Foundation
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
- NHLBI Division of Intramural Research