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Volume 149, Issue 5

Immunological and genetic characterization of BapA and EppA proteins Free

Abstract

A large majority of examined Lyme disease spirochaete isolates were demonstrated to contain one or both of the paralogous genes and . Immunological analyses of serum samples collected from infected patients coupled with comparative sequence analyses indicated that gene sequences are quite stable but the encoded proteins do not provoke a strong immune response in most individuals. Conversely, EppA proteins are much more antigenic but vary widely in sequence between different bacteria. Considerable evidence of insertion, deletion and other mutations within genes was observed. A number of significant recombination events were also found to have occurred in regions flanking genes, while the genes themselves rarely exhibited evidence of mutation, suggesting strong selective pressure to maintain BapA sequences within narrow limits. Data from these and other studies suggest important roles for BapA and EppA during the infectious cycle.

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  • Accepted:
  • Revised:
  • Published Online:
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2003-05-01
2024-04-23
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Immunological and genetic characterization of Borrelia burgdorferi BapA and EppA proteins
Microbiology 149, 1113 (2003); https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.26120-0
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.26120-0
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.26120-0
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