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Antigen Polymorphism In Borrelia Hermsii, A Clonal Pathogenic Bacterium, Stephen M. Rich, Stanley A. Sawyer, Alan G. Barbour
Antigen Polymorphism In Borrelia Hermsii, A Clonal Pathogenic Bacterium, Stephen M. Rich, Stanley A. Sawyer, Alan G. Barbour
Stephen M. Rich
The relapsing fever spirochete, Borrelia hermsii, escapes immune selection by alternating expression of surface lipoprotein alleles. The switch results from a duplicative transposition of one of several surface lipoprotein-encoding nucleotide sequences into the singular expression site. These nucleotide sequences constitute a large gene family whose diversity originated, in some cases, before the major divergences of Borrelia species. We have examined the B. hermsii vsp subfamily of alleles, which are carried on linear plasmids within each cell and maintained in several diverse copies as an antigenic archive. Each encodes a distinct serotype-specific protein. We sequenced more than 90% of the alleles …