[Jo]

Hi guys,

Just stumbled on this link via the CDC, which is the scientific paper published in July 2008, which is the source of the recent post from Hilly on this Lyme strain.

I've posted some highlights below:

Jo xxx


Wide Distribution of a High-Virulence Borrelia burgdorferi Clone in Europe and North America:

http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/14/7/pdfs/07-0880.pdf

"The strain is called Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto and is the only pathogenic genospecies that causes Lyme disease in both North America and Europe.

B. burgdorferi sensu stricto intraspecific clonal complexes may differ in their host specificity and degree of human pathogenecity.

In fact, the highly pathogenic ospC-A clone seems to have spread rapidly in recent years to infect a broad range of host species in 2 continents.

We conclude that the European and North American populations of B. burgdorferi sensu stricto have diverged significantly because of genetic drift. Plasmid genes evolved independently and showed various effects of adaptive divergence and diversifying selection

The MLST phylogeny suggests a possibility that Europe, rather than North America, may be the origin of B. burgdorferi sensu stricto, despite a higher contemporary genetic heterogeneity in North America than in Europe.

The highly pathogenic clonal complex A has a prominent presence in both continents, which suggests its success in finding ecologic niches that enable it to infect a broad range of host and vector species. "