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Infect Immun, February 1998, p. 432-440, Vol. 66, No. 2
0019-9567/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Population Structure of the Relapsing Fever Spirochete Borrelia hermsii as Indicated by Polymorphism of Two Multigene Families That Encode Immunogenic Outer Surface Lipoproteins

B. Joseph Hinnebusch,1,* Alan G. Barbour,2,3 Blanca I. Restrepo,3,dagger and Tom G. Schwan1

Laboratory of Microbial Structure and Function, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, Montana1; Departments of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics and Medicine, University of California Irvine College of Medicine, Irvine, California2; and Department of Microbiology, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas3

Received 10 June 1997/Returned for modification 19 August 1997/Accepted 17 November 1997

The tick-borne relapsing fever spirochete Borrelia hermsii evades the mammalian immune system by periodically switching expression among members of two multigene families that encode immunogenic, antigenically distinct outer surface proteins. The type strain, B. hermsii HS1, has at least 40 complete genes and pseudogenes that participate in this multiphasic antigenic variation. Originally termed vmp (for variable major protein) genes, they have been reclassified as vsp (for variable small protein) and vlp (for variable large protein) genes, based on size and amino acid sequence similarities. To date, antigenic variation in B. hermsii has been studied only in the type strain, HS1. Nucleotide sequence comparisons of 23 B. hermsii HS1 genes revealed five distinct groups, the vsp gene family and four subfamilies of vlp genes. We used PCR with family- and subfamily-specific primers, followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis, to compare the vsp and vlp repertoires of HS1 and seven other B. hermsii isolates from Washington, Idaho, and California. This analysis, together with pulsed-field gel electrophoresis genome profiles, revealed that the eight isolates formed three distinct groups, which likely represent clonal lineages. Members of the three groups coexisted in the same geographic area, but they could also be isolated across large geographical distances. This population structure may result from immune selection by the host, as has been proposed for other pathogens with polymorphic antigens.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Laboratory of Microbial Structure and Function, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, 903 S. 4th St., Hamilton, MT 59840. Phone: (406) 363-9260. Fax: (406) 363-9204. E-mail: joe_hinnebusch{at}nih.gov.

dagger Present address: Corporación para Investigaciones Biológicas (CIB), Medellín, Colombia.




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