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. 2005 Apr;43(4):1587-93.
doi: 10.1128/JCM.43.4.1587-1593.2005.

Characterization of Borrelia lusitaniae isolates collected in Tunisia and Morocco

Hend Younsi  1 , M'Hammed Sarih, Fatima Jouda, Edmond Godfroid, Lise Gern, Ali Bouattour, Guy Baranton, Daniele Postic
Affiliations

Characterization of Borrelia lusitaniae isolates collected in Tunisia and Morocco

Hend Younsi et al. J Clin Microbiol. 2005 Apr.

Abstract

Borrelia lusitaniae is a species within the complex Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato and is infrequently isolated in Europe. In contrast, this species is by far the most predominant in North Africa and in Portugal. In this study, we analyzed the genetic diversity, at several loci, of a large population of isolates from free-living Ixodes ricinus ticks collected in Tunisia and Morocco. We found a moderate diversity of the whole genome by using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis as well as in the ospA gene sequences, compared to a high level of strain homogeneity in the small noncoding ribosomal spacer. In contrast, a high diversity of this locus has been previously reported for Portuguese isolates. We hypothesize that B. lusitaniae strains isolated in North Africa constitute a clone of Portuguese origin.

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Figures

FIG. 1.
FIG. 1.
UPGMA-rooted tree obtained with MEGA software from the ribosomal rrf-rrl spacer sequences. Sequences issued from data banks are followed by the sequence accession number. AF, Africa; E, Europe; AS, Asia; Mo, Morocco; Tu, Tunisia; Po, Portugal; Tk, Turkey; Sp, Spain; Mol, Moldavia.
FIG. 2.
FIG. 2.
BssHII macrorestriction patterns of B. lusitaniae strains obtained with the Bio-Rad apparatus with the pulse time ramped from 2 to 70 s for 30 h. (A) Moroccan strains. The lanes contained lambda concatemers (lanes 1 and 11), PotiB2 (lane 2), MT1 (lane 3), MT7 (lane 4), MT18 (lane 5), MT20 (lane 6), MT24 (lane 7), MT25 (lane 8), MT27 (lane 9), and PotiB3 (lane 10). (B) Tunisian strains. The lanes contained lambda concatemers (lanes 1 and 13), PotiB2 (lane 2), PotiB3 (lane 3), TT840 (lane 4), TT867 (lane 5), TT894 (lane 6), TT899 (lane 7), TT908 (lane 8), TT916 (lane 9), TT918 (lane 10), TT919 (lane 11), and TT920 (lane 12).
FIG. 3.
FIG. 3.
Phylogenetic analysis of polymorphism after DNA restriction with MluI, BssHII, and SacII and resolution by PFGE. All fragments were transformed into a binary matrix used to generate a tree by the UPGMA method.
FIG. 4.
FIG. 4.
ospC SSCP patterns of Moroccan B. lusitaniae strains. Lane 1, MT2; lane 2, MT4; lane 3, MT8; lane 4, MT9; lane 5, MT10; lane 6, MT11; lane 7, MT12; lane 8, MT14; lane 9, MT16; lane 10, B. lusitaniae PotiB1; lane 11, B. lusitaniae PotiB2T; lane 12, B. lusitaniae PotiB3; lane 13, MT17; lane 14, MT20; lane 15, MT22; lane 16, MT24; lane 17, MT27; lane 18, MT13, lane 19, MT26.
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