Bacteria Genomes - BORRELIA GARINII

Lyme disease is a vector-borne, multisystem inflammatory disease caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, which is transmitted to humans by the bite of ticks of the Ixodes ricinus complex. B. burgdorferi can be divided into at least 11 species and Borrelia garinii is one of these. When Borrelia burgdorferi was originally described it was believed to be the only species responsible for Lyme borreliosis. However, in the last ten years reciprocal hybridization of a large number of strains clearly demonstrated that the genetic diversity of this species was greater than expected. Of the 11 different species, only Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, B. garinii , and B. afzelii are undoubtedly involved in clinical cases of Lyme borreliosis. Neurological symptoms seem to be the commonest manifestation in western Europe and B. garinii is most frequently associated with these cases.

Borrelia garinii is one of two major strains found in Europe. It usually causes Lyme Disease symptoms of the neurological kind - such as extreme back- and leg-pains, meningitis and partial facial paralysis, Lyme arthritis due to B garinii may be associated in susceptible hosts with amoxicillin resistance or treatment resistance

There has been considerable speculation concerning possible differences in the ecology of the genospecies and most data suggest that B. afzelii is associated with rodents and B. garinii with birds. However, recently B. garinii has also been identified in tissues taken from rodents and at least one strain of B. garinii (serotype 4), rarely found in ticks but associated with neuroborreliosis, appears to be specific for rodents. In one study of double infections in ticks B. valaisiana was most often associated with B. garinii and in another study both these species were shown to be transmitted from blackbirds ( Turdus merula) to ticks.

Borrelia garinii is Gram-negative and helical in shape.

References:

Clin. Rheumatol. 21(4):330-4. 2002
Ann. Rheum. Dis. 60 : 284-286 (2001)
http://www.pasteur.fr/recherche/borrelia/Welcome.html
http://www.emedicine.com/neuro/byname/lyme-disease.htm
http://vie.dis.strath.ac.uk/vie/LymeEU/biology_spiro-borrelia-strains.html
http://home.earthlink.net/~webmedic4u/lyme.html
http://textbookofbacteriology.net/Lyme.html