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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences
Swimming Dynamics Of The Lyme Disease Spirochete, Dhruv K. Vig, Charles W. Wolgemuth
Swimming Dynamics Of The Lyme Disease Spirochete, Dhruv K. Vig, Charles W. Wolgemuth
UCHC Articles - Research
The Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, swims by undulating its cell body in the form of a traveling flat-wave, a process driven by rotating internal flagella. We study B. burgdorferi ’s swimming by treating the cell body and flagella as linearly elastic filaments. The dynamics of the cell are then determined from the balance between elastic and resistive forces and moments. We find that planar, traveling waves only exist when the flagella are effectively anchored at both ends of the bacterium and that these traveling flat-waves rotate as they undulate. The model predicts how the undulation frequency is related …
Borrelia Burgdorferi Requires The Alternative Sigma Factor Rpos For Dissemination Within The Vector During Tick-To-Mammal Transmission, Star M. Dunham-Ems, Melissa J. Caimano, Justin D. Radolf
Borrelia Burgdorferi Requires The Alternative Sigma Factor Rpos For Dissemination Within The Vector During Tick-To-Mammal Transmission, Star M. Dunham-Ems, Melissa J. Caimano, Justin D. Radolf
UCHC Articles - Research
While the roles of rpoSBb and RpoS-dependent genes have been studied extensively within the mammal, the contribution of the RpoS regulon to the tick-phase of the Borrelia burgdorferi enzootic cycle has not been examined. Herein, we demonstrate that RpoS-dependent gene expression is prerequisite for the transmission of spirochetes by feeding nymphs. RpoS-deficient organisms are confined to the midgut lumen where they transform into an unusual morphotype (round bodies) during the later stages of the blood meal. We show that round body formation is rapidly reversible, and in vitro appears to be attributable, in part, to reduced levels of Coenzyme A …