Summary: The Lyme disease agent exploits a tick protein to
infect the mammalian host
Nandhini Ramamoorthi1
, Sukanya Narasimhan1
, Utpal Pal1
, Fukai Bao1
, Xiaofeng F. Yang4
, Durland Fish3
,
Juan Anguita5
, Michael V. Norgard4
, Fred S. Kantor2
, John F. Anderson6
, Raymond A. Koski7
& Erol Fikrig1,3
The Lyme disease agent, Borrelia burgdorferi, is maintained in a
tick­mouse cycle1,2
. Here we show that B. burgdorferi usurps a tick
salivary protein, Salp15 (ref. 3), to facilitate the infection of mice.
The level of salp15 expression was selectively enhanced by the

Source: Arnold, Jonathan - Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center & Department of Genetics, University of Georgia

Collections: Biotechnology