{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,17]],"date-time":"2026-10-17T00:42:29Z","timestamp":1792197749058,"version":"4.4.0"},"reference-count":58,"publisher":"American Society for Microbiology","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2012,12,4]],"date-time":"2012-12-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1354579200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/3.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2012,12,31]],"date-time":"2012-12-31T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1356912000000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.asm.org\/non-commercial-tdm-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.asm.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["mBio"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2012,12,31]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>ABSTRACT<\/jats:title><jats:p>The rodent<jats:named-content content-type=\"genus-species\">Peromyscus leucopus<\/jats:named-content>is a major natural reservoir for the Lyme disease agent<jats:named-content content-type=\"genus-species\">Borrelia burgdorferi<\/jats:named-content>and a host for its vector<jats:named-content content-type=\"genus-species\">Ixodes scapularis<\/jats:named-content>. At various locations in northeastern United States 10 to 15\u00a0<jats:named-content content-type=\"genus-species\">B. burgdorferi<\/jats:named-content>strains coexist at different prevalences in tick populations. We asked whether representative strains of high or low prevalence differed in their infections of<jats:italic>P.\u00a0leucopus<\/jats:italic>. After 5\u00a0weeks of experimental infection of groups with each of 6 isolates, distributions and burdens of bacteria in tissues were measured by quantitative PCR, and antibodies to<jats:named-content content-type=\"genus-species\">B. burgdorferi<\/jats:named-content>were evaluated by immunoblotting and protein microarray. All groups of animals were infected in their joints, ears, tails, and hearts, but overall spirochete burdens were lower in animals infected with low-prevalence strains. Animals were similar regardless of the infecting isolate in their levels of antibodies to whole cells, FlaB, BmpA, and DbpB proteins, and the conserved N-terminal region of the serotype-defining OspC proteins. But there were strain-specific antibody responses to full-length OspC and to plasmid-encoded VlsE, BBK07, and BBK12 proteins. Sequencing of additional VlsE genes revealed substantial diversity within some pairs of strains but near-identical sequences within other pairs, which otherwise differed in their<jats:italic>ospC<\/jats:italic>alleles. The presence or absence of full-length bbk07 and bbk12 genes accounted for the differences in antibody responses. We propose that for<jats:named-content content-type=\"genus-species\">B. burgdorferi<\/jats:named-content>, there is selection in reservoir species for (i) sequence diversity, as for OspC and VlsE, and (ii) the presence or absence of polymorphisms, as for BBK07 and BBK12.<\/jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>IMPORTANCE<\/jats:bold>Humans are dead-end hosts for<jats:italic>Borrelia<\/jats:italic>agents of Lyme disease (LD), and, thus, irrelevant for the pathogens\u2019 maintenance. Many reports of human cases and laboratory mouse infections exist, but less is known about infection and immunity in natural reservoirs, such as the rodent<jats:named-content content-type=\"genus-species\">Peromyscus leucopus<\/jats:named-content>. We observed that high- and low-prevalence strains of<jats:named-content content-type=\"genus-species\">Borrelia burgdorferi<\/jats:named-content>were capable of infecting<jats:italic>P.\u00a0leucopus<\/jats:italic>but elicited different patterns of antibody responses. Antibody reactivities to the VlsE protein were as type-specific as previously characterized reactivities to serotype-defining OspC proteins. In addition, the low-prevalence strains lacked full-length genes for two proteins that (i) are encoded by a virulence-associated plasmid in some high-prevalence strains and (ii) LD patients and field-captured rodents commonly have antibodies to. Immune selection against these genes may have led to null phenotype lineages that can infect otherwise immune hosts but at the cost of reduced fitness and lower prevalence.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1128\/mbio.00434-12","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2012,12,6]],"date-time":"2012-12-06T01:38:08Z","timestamp":1354757888000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1128\/asmj-crossmark-policy-page","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":60,"title":["Experimental Infections of the Reservoir Species Peromyscus leucopus with Diverse Strains of Borrelia burgdorferi, a Lyme Disease Agent"],"prefix":"10.1128","volume":"3","author":[{"given":"Elisabeth","family":"Baum","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Departments of Microbiology &amp; Molecular Genetics, Medicine, and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, California, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fong","family":"Hue","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departments of Microbiology &amp; Molecular Genetics, Medicine, and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, California, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alan G.","family":"Barbour","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departments of Microbiology &amp; Molecular Genetics, Medicine, and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, California, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"235","reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_2_2_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.0903810106"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_3_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/0169-4758(93)90176-G"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_4_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1051\/vetres\/2009019"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_5_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1086\/382594"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_6_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.0405763102"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_7_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/10635150490468701"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_8_2","volume-title":"Borrelia: molecular biology, host interaction, and pathogenesis","author":"Barthold SW","year":"2010","unstructured":"BartholdSW CadavidD PhillipMT . 2010. 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