SUMMARY A large amount of knowledge has been acquired since the original descriptions
of Lyme borreliosis (LB) and of its causative agent, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto. The …

In order to understand the population structure and dynamics of bacterial microorganisms,
typing systems that accurately reflect the phylogenetic and evolutionary relationship of the …

We have determined that Borrelia burgdorferi strain B31 MI carries 21 extrachromosomal
DNA elements, the largest number known for any bacterium. Among these are 12 linear and …

Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, the spirochete that causes human Lyme borreliosis (LB), is a
genetically and phenotypically divergent species. In the past several years, various …

The organization of the ribosomal genes is unique in Borrelia burgdorferi in that the rrl (23S)
and rrf (5S) genes are tandemly duplicated. We took advantage of this uniqueness to assess …

The outer surface protein, OspC, is highly variable in Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, the
agent of Lyme disease. We have shown that even within a single population OspC is highly …

Lyme disease begins at the site of a tick bite, producing a primary infection with spread of
the organism to secondary sites occurring early in the course of infection. A major outer …

We developed a rapid and reliable method for the identification Borrelia burgdorferi sensu
lato species in ticks. We used the DNA sequence polymorphism of the spacer region …

Pathogenic spirochetes are the causative agents of several important diseases including
syphilis, Lyme disease, leptospirosis, swine dysentery, periodontal disease and some forms …

Oligonucleotide primers based on Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato ospA gene sequences
have been designed for use in the PCR to type all (SL primers) or each (GI to GIII primers) of …