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Borrelia recurrentis Characterization and Comparison with Relapsing-Fever, Lyme-Associated, and Other Borrelia spp.

¹Department of Medical Microbiology, Charing Cross Hospital, London, W6 8RF, United Kingdom
²Department of Histopathology, Charing Cross Hospital, London, W6 8RF, United Kingdom
⁵Centre for Tropical Medicine, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom
³Department of Molecular Microbiology, Fukuyama University, Hiroshima, Japan
⁴Department of Internal Medicine, Black Lion Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

^* Corresponding author. Mailing address:Department of Medical Microbiology, Charing Cross Hospital, Fulham Palace Road, London, W6 8RF, United Kingdom. Phone: 0181 846 7570. Fax: 0181 846 7261. E-mail: rabm001{at}cxwms.ac.uk.

ABSTRACT

Borrelia recurrentis, the cause of louse-borne relapsing fever, has until recently been considered noncultivable, which has prevented characterization of this spirochete. We successfully cultivated 18 strains from patients with louse-borne relapsing fever and present the initial characterization of these isolates. Electron microscopy revealed spirochetal cells with pointed ends, an average wavelength of 1.8 µ.m, an amplitude of 0.8 µm, and 8 to 10 periplasmic flagella. The G+C ratio was 28.4 mol%. Whole DNA-DNA hybridizations showed similarity between the isolates of B. recurrentis but not with Borrelia hermsii, Borrelia parkeri, Borrelia turicatae, or the Lyme-associated borreliae. Sequencing studies of both the flagellin and 16S RNA genes revealed that the greatest similarity was between B. recurrentis and Borrelia duttonii. Analysis of the sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis profiles of strains revealed four groups based on the position of a major protein band (one of the groups showed some heterogeneity and was subdivided into four subgroups). Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis revealed five distinct patterns.

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