GE46CH24-Samuels ARI 3 October 2012 16:10 Genetics of Borrelia burgdorferi Dustin Brisson,1 Dan Drecktrah,2 Christian H. Eggers,3 and D. Scott Samuels2,4 1Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104; email:
[email protected] 2Division of Biological Sciences, The University of Montana, Missoula, Montana 59812; email:
[email protected];
[email protected] 3Department of Biomedical Sciences, Quinnipiac University, Hamden, Connecticut 06518;
[email protected] 4Center for Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics, The University of Montana, Missoula, Montana 59812 Annu. Rev. Genet. 2012. 46:515–36 Keywords First published online as a Review in Advance on transformation, transduction, recombination, horizontal gene transfer, September 4, 2012 spirochete, Lyme disease The Annual Review of Genetics is online at genet.annualreviews.org Abstract This article’s doi: The spirochetes in the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato genospecies group 10.1146/annurev-genet-011112-112140 cycle in nature between tick vectors and vertebrate hosts. The current Copyright c 2012 by Annual Reviews. ! assemblage of B. burgdorferi sensu lato, of which three species cause All rights reserved Lyme disease in humans, originated from a rapid species radiation that 0066-4197/12/1201-0515$20.00 occurred near the origin of the clade. All of these species share a unique genome structure that is highly segmented and predominantly com- by University of Pennsylvania on 11/12/12. For personal use only. posed of linear replicons. One of the circular plasmids is a prophage that exists as several isoforms in each cell and can be transduced to Annu. Rev.