期刊名称：Annals of Agricultural and Environmental Medicine
印刷版ISSN：1232-1966
电子版ISSN：1898-2263
出版年度：2009
卷号：16
期号：01
页码：1-1
出版社：Institute of Agricultural Medicine in Lublin
摘要：The life transmission cycle of B. burgdorferi requires migration of spirochetes
from tick’s gut to its salivary glands during vertebrate’s blood sucking, penetrating to
the vertebrate’s tissues and their colonization. A special feature of these bacteria, despite
its relatively small genome, is the ability to adapt in different host environments. These
unusual properties of borreliae are associated with large number of plasmids, which show
a high variability as a result of recombination with each other. Changes in the synthesis
of outer proteins are the fi rst strategy of borreliae in avoiding the destructive effect of
the host’s immune system. Then, by colonizing tissues, they initiate production of Erp
and CRASP proteins, which bind regulators and components of complement and repress
the cytolytic effect of the host’s serum. Some evidences indicate that the spirochetes use
quorum sensing as a mechanism to control protein expression. B. burgdorferi probably
utilizes a LuxS/autoinducer-2-dependent quorum sensing mechanism. However, it is not
yet known how B. burgdorferi detect AI-2. Analysis of the results of expression studies of
the luxS gene shows that the molecular mechanisms of this phenomenon in B. burgdorferi
are only fragmentarily known. Continuation of quorum sensing studies may be essential
in improving the construction of vaccines as well as therapy of Lyme disease.
关键词：genome and adaptation of metabolism of Borrelia burgdorferi, quorum
sensing, Osp proteins, Erp and CRASP proteins, vls gene.
