The role of recombination in OspC variation in lyme disease borrelia

english

1996

volume 5, issue 3-4

Združenje slovenskih dermatovenerologov

The OspC protein of Lyme disease borrelia (borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato) is highly immunogenic and is a protective antigen, thus an ideal candidate for a subunit vaccine. However, this protein is extremely heterogeneous . This study was undertaken to analyze the variability of the OspC protein at the genetic level. The ospC gene was amplified by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) from 76 borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato strains. PCR products were subjected to restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analyses and genes from different RFLP types were sequenced. A total of 33 ospC RFLP types were identifield, and two additional RFLP types were deduced from published ospC sequences. Genes from different RFLP types were found to be extremely divergent, while within a given RFLP type, no sequence differences were detected. The majority of amino acid changes are localized to the central, highly variable portion of the mature OspC. Pairwise sequence comparisons indicate a mosaic structure of ospC. These results suggest that OspC variation is based on frequent recombination between ospC alleles; this genetic exchange is proposed to be mediated by lateral transfer of ospC sequences between strains.

16.09.2022