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Related Experiment Videos

Antigen polymorphism in Borrelia hermsii, a clonal pathogenic bacterium.

S M Rich1, S A Sawyer, A G Barbour

  • 1Division of Infectious Diseases, Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, 200 Westboro Road, North Grafton, MA 01536, USA. stephen.rich@tufts.edu

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|December 14, 2001
PubMed
Summary

Borrelia hermsii evades immune detection by switching surface lipoproteins. This immune evasion is driven by recombination within the vsp gene family, creating significant antigenic diversity.

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Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Immunology
  • Evolutionary Biology

Background:

  • Relapsing fever spirochetes like Borrelia hermsii evade immune responses by altering surface lipoprotein expression.
  • This immune evasion mechanism involves duplicative transposition of surface lipoprotein-encoding genes into a single expression site.
  • A large gene family encodes these lipoproteins, with some diversity predating major Borrelia species divergences.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the evolutionary mechanisms driving diversification within the vsp (variable surface protein) gene subfamily of Borrelia hermsii.
  • To understand how recombination and immune selection contribute to the antigenic diversity of vsp alleles.

Main Methods:

  • Sequencing of over 90% of vsp alleles within the Borrelia hermsii strain HS1.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Analysis of allelic mosaicism to infer recombination events.
  • Assessment of amino acid differentiation to quantify serotype variation.

    • Main Results:

    • A high degree of allelic mosaicism was observed within the vsp gene family.
    • Intragenic recombination, influenced by host immune selection, appears to be the primary driver of vsp allele diversification.
    • Recombinational diversification resulted in significant amino acid changes (30-40%), sufficient to overcome antibody cross-reactivity.

    Conclusions:

    • The evolution of the vsp gene family in Borrelia hermsii is characterized by punctuated events of allelic differentiation.
    • This diversification strategy allows the spirochete to effectively evade host immune responses.
    • Evolutionary diversification is driven by recombination rather than gradual accumulation of point mutations.