United Graduate School of Agricultural Science and Veterinary Science, Gifu University, Gifu, Japan Department of Bacteriology-I, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan Ohara Research Laboratory, Ohara General Hospital, Fukushima, Japan Department of Parasitology, Aichi Medical University, Aichi, Japan Department of Disease Control, Graduate School of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, Japan Laboratory of Veterinary Microbiology, School of Life and Environmental Science, Osaka Prefecture University, Osaka, Japan.
Environ Microbiol Rep. 2011 Oct;3(5):632-7. doi: 10.1111/j.1758-2229.2011.00280.x. Epub 2011 Aug 25.
The genus Borrelia is arthropod-borne infectious agents in vertebrates, and is classified into Lyme disease (LD) Borrelia spp. and Relapsing fever (RF) Borrelia spp. In addition to these Borrelia groups, we recently reported reptile-associated (REP) Borrelia spp. from reptiles and from hard-bodied ticks, which probably transmitted the REP Borrelia spp. In this study, we investigated the presence of REP Borrelia sp. in moulted ticks, and found that trans-stadial transmission of REP Borrelia sp. occurred in the midgut, while it was observed that REP Borrelia sp. entered the salivary gland during blood-feeding. This characteristic is also found in LD Borrelia spp., which are also transmitted by hard-bodied ticks. Although phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that REP Borrelia spp. are similar to RF Borrelia spp., the ecology of the spirochaetes within the vector ticks is different for REP Borrelia spp. and RF Borrelia spp. Elucidation of the evolutionary history of the genus Borrelia and its adaptation to ticks promises to be of great interest to researchers of vector-borne microorganisms.
伯氏疏螺旋体属是一种节肢动物传播的感染性病原体，存在于脊椎动物中，分为莱姆病（LD）伯氏疏螺旋体和回归热（RF）伯氏疏螺旋体。除了这些伯氏疏螺旋体群外，我们最近还从爬行动物和硬蜱中报告了与爬行动物相关的（REP）伯氏疏螺旋体。在这项研究中，我们调查了脱落蜱中是否存在 REP 伯氏疏螺旋体，发现 REP 伯氏疏螺旋体在中肠中发生跨龄传播，而在吸血时观察到 REP 伯氏疏螺旋体进入唾液腺。LD 伯氏疏螺旋体也存在这种特征，它也是由硬蜱传播的。尽管系统发育分析表明 REP 伯氏疏螺旋体与 RF 伯氏疏螺旋体相似，但 REP 伯氏疏螺旋体和 RF 伯氏疏螺旋体在媒介蜱中的螺旋体生态学不同。阐明伯氏疏螺旋体属的进化历史及其对蜱的适应，有望引起媒介传播微生物研究人员的极大兴趣。
