Diversity and host specificity of Borrelia burgdorferi’s outer surface protein C (ospC) alleles in synanthropic mammals, with a notable ospC allele U absence from mixed infections
| Author(s) | Shifflett, Scarlet A. | |
| Author(s) | Ferreira, Francisco C. | |
| Author(s) | González, Julia | |
| Author(s) | Toledo, Alvaro | |
| Author(s) | Fonseca, Dina M. | |
| Author(s) | Ellis, Vincenzo A. | |
| Date Accessioned | 2024-03-08T18:03:42Z | |
| Date Available | 2024-03-08T18:03:42Z | |
| Publication Date | 2023-12-15 | |
| Description | This article was originally published in Infection and Immunity. The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.1128/iai.00244-23. Copyright © 2023 American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved. This article will be embargoed until 6/15/2024. | |
| Abstract | Interactions among pathogen genotypes that vary in host specificity may affect overall transmission dynamics in multi-host systems. Borrelia burgdorferi, a bacterium that causes Lyme disease, is typically transmitted among wildlife by Ixodes ticks. Despite the existence of many alleles of B. burgdorferi’s sensu stricto outer surface protein C (ospC) gene, most human infections are caused by a small number of ospC alleles [“human infectious alleles” (HIAs)], suggesting variation in host specificity associated with ospC. To characterize the wildlife host association of B. burgdorferi’s ospC alleles, we used metagenomics to sequence ospC alleles from 68 infected individuals belonging to eight mammalian species trapped at three sites in suburban New Brunswick, New Jersey (USA). We found that multiple allele (“mixed”) infections were common. HIAs were most common in mice (Peromyscus spp.) and only one HIA was detected at a site where mice were rarely captured. ospC allele U was exclusively found in chipmunks (Tamias striatus), and although a significant number of different alleles were observed in chipmunks, including HIAs, allele U never co-occurred with other alleles in mixed infections. Our results suggest that allele U may be excluding other alleles, thereby reducing the capacity of chipmunks to act as reservoirs for HIAs. | |
| Sponsor | We thank Matthew Milholland for teaching us how to catch micro- and medium-sized mammals safely and Lindsey Mann and Nicole Wagner for their help with lab work. We thank Brewster Kingham and Mark Shaw in the University of Delaware’s DNA Sequencing and Genotyping Center for Illumina sequencing. We performed bioinformatic analyses on the University of Delaware’s BIOMIX cluster, which is supported by Delaware INBRE (NIH/NIGMS P20 GM103446), NIH Shared Instrumentation Grant (S10OD028725), the State of Delaware, and the Delaware Biotechnology Institute. Two anonymous reviewers provided critical feedback on an earlier version of the manuscript. We also thank Jacob Bowman and Dustin Brisson for providing helpful feedback throughout the execution of the project. Scarlet A. Shifflett: conceptualization, funding acquisition, methodology, formal analysis, and writing-original draft. Francisco C. Ferreira: methodology, data curation, writing-review, and editing. Julia González: methodology, data curation, writing-review, and editing. Alvaro Toledo: methodology, writing-review, and editing. Dina M. Fonseca: methodology, funding acquisition, writing-review, and editing. Vincenzo A. Ellis: conceptualization, funding acquisition, supervision, formal analysis, methodology, writing-review, and editing. S.A.S. was supported by an NSF GRFP (1940700). The research was supported in part by funding from U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Hatch (DEL00774, VAE), a USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Multistate grant (Multistate 1943) and Cooperative Agreement Number 1U01CK000509 between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Northeast Center of Excellence in Vector Borne Diseases (sub-contract to DMF). The contents of this work are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Health and Human Services. | |
| Citation | Shifflett SA, Ferreira FC, González J, Toledo A, Fonseca DM, Ellis VA. 2024. Diversity and host specificity of Borrelia burgdorferi’s outer surface protein C (ospC) alleles in synanthropic mammals, with a notable ospC allele U absence from mixed infections. Infect Immun 92:e00244-23. https://doi.org/10.1128/iai.00244-23 | |
| ISSN | 1098-5522 | |
| URL | https://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/34152 | |
| Language | en_US | |
| Publisher | Infection and Immunity | |
| Title | Diversity and host specificity of Borrelia burgdorferi’s outer surface protein C (ospC) alleles in synanthropic mammals, with a notable ospC allele U absence from mixed infections | |
| Type | Article |
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