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Borrelia burgdorferi surface protein Lmp1 facilitates pathogen dissemination through ticks as studied by an

Juraj Koci1, Quentin Bernard1, Xiuli Yang1

  • 1Department of Veterinary Medicine and Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA.

Scientific Reports
|February 1, 2018
PubMed

Insights

Lyme disease bacteria (Borrelia burgdorferi) use the Lmp1 protein to move between mice and ticks. This study developed a new feeding system to show Lmp1 is crucial for this transmission.

Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Vector-borne diseases
  • Infectious disease research

Background:

  • Lyme borreliosis is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, which cycles between ticks and mammals.
  • Studying pathogen transmission is difficult due to low spirochete numbers during early infection stages.
  • Artificial membrane feeders aid research into pathogen-host-vector interactions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop a modified membrane feeder to investigate the role of Borrelia burgdorferi surface protein Lmp1.
  • To analyze Lmp1's function in spirochete transitions between mammalian hosts and ticks.

Main Methods:

  • Development of a modified artificial membrane feeding system.
  • Utilizing the feeder to study Borrelia burgdorferi acquisition by unfed ticks and transmission from infected ticks.
  • Comparing wild-type spirochetes with lmp1 deletion mutants.

Main Results:

  • The modified membrane feeder successfully supported tick blood meal engorgement with low pathogen levels (10^2 cells/ml).
  • Spirochetes lacking Lmp1 (lmp1 deletion mutants) showed significantly impaired acquisition by ticks.
  • lmp1 deletion mutants also exhibited reduced transmission from infected ticks.

Conclusions:

  • The surface protein Lmp1 is essential for Borrelia burgdorferi transitions between mammalian hosts and tick vectors.
  • The artificial membrane feeding system is a valuable tool for studying pathogen gene product roles in tick persistence and passage.

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