Molecular and immunological analyses of the Borrelia turicatae Bdr protein family.

Analysis of the cellular localization of Bdr paralogs in Borrelia burgdorferi, a causative agent of lyme disease: evidence for functional diversity.

The bdr (Borrelia direct repeat) gene family of the genus Borrelia encodes a polymorphic group of proteins that carry a central repeat motif region containing putative phosphorylation sites and a hydrophobic carboxyl-terminal domain. It has been postulated that the Bdr proteins may anchor to the inner membrane via the C-terminal domain. In this study, we used cellular fractionation methodologie...

Studies in Borreliae II. Some Immunologic, Biochemical and Physical Properties of the Antigenic Components of Borrelia turicatae

Cloning and molecular characterization of a multicopy, linear plasmid-carried, repeat motif-containing gene from Borrelia turicatae, a causative agent of relapsing fever.

Borrelia turicatae is one of several spirochete species that can cause relapsing fever. Here, we describe the identification and characterization of a gene from B. turicatae and other relapsing-fever spirochetes that exhibits homology with the rep+ and ORF-E gene families of the Lyme disease spirochetes. This gene, which we have designated repA, encodes a putative protein of 30.2 kDa with an is...

Expression and Purification of Recombinant Outer Surface Protein D of Borrelia burgdorferi

To carry out the immunological experiments on the serum of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients, based on a correlation between Borrelia burgdorferi infection and contracting MS autoimmune disease the outer surface protein D (OspD) of the bacterium was expressed and purified. A clone containing the OspD gene in pET11a expression vector under the control of T7 promoter was transformed to the bacteri...

Immunologic and genetic analyses of VmpA of a neurotropic strain of Borrelia turicatae.

In mice infected with serotype A but not serotype B of the relapsing fever spirochete Borrelia turicatae, early invasion of the brain occurs. Serotypes A and B are further distinguished by the abundant surface protein they produce: VmpA and VmpB, respectively. Western blotting with monoclonal antibodies, one-dimensional peptide mapping, and partial amino acid sequencing demonstrated regions of ...