Research Topics
Genomes and Genes | A G BarbourSummaryAffiliation: University of California Country: USA Publications
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Publications
Alp, an arthropod-associated outer membrane protein of Borrelia species that cause relapsing feverRenee A Marcsisin
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, USA
Infect Immun 80:1881-90. 2012..hermsii antigens but not detectably to native or recombinant Alp...- The nucleotide sequence of a linear plasmid of Borrelia burgdorferi reveals similarities to those of circular plasmids of other prokaryotesA G Barbour
Department of Microbiology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 78284, USA
J Bacteriol 178:6635-9. 1996..The OrfC and OrfE proteins were similar to hypothetical proteins encoded by circular plasmids of B. burgdorferi. The OrfM and OrfN proteins were similar to replication proteins of circular plasmids of other bacteria... - In vitro and in vivo neutralization of the relapsing fever agent Borrelia hermsii with serotype-specific immunoglobulin M antibodiesA G Barbour
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California 92697, USA
Infect Immun 69:1009-15. 2001..The study established that a Vlp protein was the target of a neutralizing antibody response, and it also indicated that the conformation and/or the native topology of Vlp were important for eliciting that immunity... - Surface protein variation by expression site switching in the relapsing fever agent Borrelia hermsiiA G Barbour
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and Medicine, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California 92697, USA
Infect Immun 68:7114-21. 2000..The study confirmed that serotype 33 is distinct from other serotypes of B. hermsii in its biology and demonstrated that B. hermsii can change its major surface protein through switching between two expression sites... - Antigenic variation in vector-borne pathogensA G Barbour
University of California Irvine, Irvine, California 92697 4025, USA
Emerg Infect Dis 6:449-57. 2000..Antigenic variation poses a challenge in the development of vaccines against vector-borne pathogens... - Pathogen escape from host immunity by a genome program for antigenic variationAlan G Barbour
Department of Microbiology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 4028, USA
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 103:18290-5. 2006..Although the switching hierarchy causes changes in individual cells that are stochastic, ordering of variants within hosts is semipredictable... - A genome-wide proteome array reveals a limited set of immunogens in natural infections of humans and white-footed mice with Borrelia burgdorferiAlan G Barbour
Pacific Southwest Center for Research on Emerging Infections, University of California Irvine, 3012 Hewitt, Irvine, CA 92697 4028, USA
Infect Immun 76:3374-89. 2008..These results indicate that the majority of deduced proteins of B. burgdorferi do not elicit antibody responses during infection and that the limited sets of immunogens are similar for two different host species... - Niche partitioning of Borrelia burgdorferi and Borrelia miyamotoi in the same tick vector and mammalian reservoir speciesAlan G Barbour
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California 92697 4028, USA
Am J Trop Med Hyg 81:1120-31. 2009..miyamotoi averaged approximately 0.20 and approximately 0.02, respectively. Co-infections of P. leucopus or I. scapularis with both B. burgdorferi and B. miyamotoi were neither more nor less common than random expectations... - Horizontally acquired genes for purine salvage in Borrelia spp. causing relapsing feverAlan G Barbour
Pacific Southwest Center, 346 Hewitt Hall, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697 4025, USA
Infect Immun 73:6165-8. 2005..These were located among the rRNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that these genes had a different evolutionary history than those of orthologs in other spirochetes... 
Borrelia burgdorferi infection in a natural population of Peromyscus Leucopus mice: a longitudinal study in an area where Lyme Borreliosis is highly endemicJonas Bunikis
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California 92697-4025, USA
J Infect Dis 189:1515-23. 2004..burgdorferi by late August, coinciding with the peak activity period of host-seeking larvae uninfected with the spirochete Ixodes scapularis, thereby perpetuating the agent through succeeding generations of ticks...- Non-heritable change of a spirochaete's phenotype by decoration of the cell surface with exogenous lipoproteinsJ Bunikis
Departments of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and Medicine, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
Mol Microbiol 40:387-96. 2001..burgdorferi and B. hermsii with OspA rendered the cells susceptible to killing by OspA-specific antiserum. Such non-genetic alteration of the surface of a bacterium may be used to study functions and properties of lipoproteins in situ... - Access of antibody or trypsin to an integral outer membrane protein (P66) of Borrelia burgdorferi is hindered by Osp lipoproteinsJ Bunikis
Departments of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and Medicine, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California 92697, USA
Infect Immun 67:2874-83. 1999..The proximity and possible contact between P66 and OspA (or other Osp proteins) may hinder the effectiveness of antibodies to what otherwise would be an appropriate vaccine target... - Cross-species surface display of functional spirochetal lipoproteins by recombinant Borrelia burgdorferiWolfram R Zückert
Department of Microbiology, Molecular Genetics and Immunology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas 66160, USA
Infect Immun 72:1463-9. 2004..They also validate the use of recombinant B. burgdorferi in studies of surface lipoprotein structure-function and the biogenesis of spirochete membranes... - Structural conservation of neurotropism-associated VspA within the variable Borrelia Vsp-OspC lipoprotein familyW R Zuckert
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California at Irvine, College of Medicine, Irvine, California 92697, USA
J Biol Chem 276:457-63. 2001..Two forms of VspA crystals suitable for structure determination by x-ray diffraction methods have been obtained... - Cross-species hybridization of a Borrelia burgdorferi DNA array reveals infection- and culture-associated genes of the unsequenced genome of the relapsing fever agent Borrelia hermsiiJianmin Zhong
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-4025, USA
Mol Microbiol 51:729-48. 2004..Orthologues of BBP07 in B. hermsii were identified, and increased expression in infected mice was demonstrated by quantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction... - Analysis of promoters in Borrelia burgdorferi by use of a transiently expressed reporter geneC D Sohaskey
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California Irvine, 92697 4025, USA
J Bacteriol 179:6837-42. 1997..This simple transient-expression assay was shown to be an effective method to study promoter function in B. burgdorferi in the absence of a well-developed genetic system... - Function and evolution of plasmid-borne genes for pyrimidine biosynthesis in Borrelia sppJianmin Zhong
Departments of Microbiology and of Molecular Genetics and Medicine, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-4028, USA
J Bacteriol 188:909-18. 2006..These findings indicate that Borrelia spp. causing RF have a greater capability for de novo pyrimidine synthesis than those causing LB, thus providing a basis for some of the biological differences between the two groups of pathogens... - Comparative analysis and immunological characterization of the Borrelia Bdr protein familyW R Zuckert
Departments of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and Medicine, University of California Irvine, California 92697, USA
Infect Immun 67:3257-66. 1999..Together, these data indicate that Bdr proteins constitute a family of cross-reactive Borrelia proteins which are expressed in the course of Lyme disease and in vitro... - Typing of Borrelia relapsing fever group strainsJonas Bunikis
University of California Irvine, Irvine, California 92697, USA
Emerg Infect Dis 10:1661-4. 2004..miyamotoi and B. lonestari, transmitted by ixodid ticks. Field surveys of Ixodes ticks in Connecticut and Sweden showed limited local diversity for B. miyamotoi... - Antigenic variation by Borrelia hermsii occurs through recombination between extragenic repetitive elements on linear plasmidsQiyuan Dai
Department of Microbiology, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA
Mol Microbiol 60:1329-43. 2006..The downstream extragenic crossover site in B. hermsii contrasts with the upstream [corrected] extragenic crossover site for antigenic variation in African trypanosomes... - Transgenic expression of RecA of the spirochetes Borrelia burgdorferi and Borrelia hermsii in Escherichia coli revealed differences in DNA repair and recombination phenotypesAdrienne D Putteet-Driver
Departments of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California 92697-4025, USA
J Bacteriol 186:2266-74. 2004..The comparatively poor function of Borrelia recA in the latter set of assays may be the consequence of impaired coordination in the loading of the transgenic RecA by RecBCD and/or RecFOR in E. coli... - Within-host dynamics of antigenic variationSteven A Frank
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
Infect Genet Evol 6:141-6. 2006..We illustrate the concept of connectivity pathways by reanalysis of data on transitions between variants from Borrelia hermsii... - Laboratory testing for suspected Lyme diseaseJonas Bunikis
Departments of Medicine and Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, USA
Med Clin North Am 86:311-40. 2002..burgdorferi. More recent challenges for serologic testing are seropositivity in the population as the result of immunization with the Lyme disease vaccine and the emergence of new Borrelia species that cause Lyme disease-like illnesses... - Sequence typing reveals extensive strain diversity of the Lyme borreliosis agents Borrelia burgdorferi in North America and Borrelia afzelii in EuropeJonas Bunikis
Department of Microbiology, B240 Medical Sciences I, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697 4025, USA
Microbiology 150:1741-55. 2004..burgdorferi. It is concluded that B. burgdorferi and B. afzelii have greater genetic diversity than had previously been estimated, and that the IGS locus alone is sufficient for strain typing and phylogenetic studies... - Stability of Borrelia burgdorferi bdr loci in vitro and in vivoW R Zuckert
Department of Microbiology, University of California Irvine College of Medicine, Irvine, California 92697, USA
Infect Immun 68:1727-30. 2000..Our data indicate that, apart from plasmid loss during in vitro cultivation, the bdr paralog loci of strain B31 are stable. This suggests that recombinatorial variation of bdr genes is not essential for persistent mammalian infection... - Spirochaeta aurantia has diacetyl chloramphenicol esterase activityC D Sohaskey
Departments of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California 92697, USA
J Bacteriol 182:1930-4. 2000..aurantia. The S. aurantia esterase could reduce the effectiveness of cat as either a selectable marker or a reporter gene in this species... - Identification and characterization of a homologue of the pro-inflammatory cytokine Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor in the tick, Amblyomma americanumD C Jaworski
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, B240 Med Sci I, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
Insect Mol Biol 10:323-31. 2001..americanum ticks. In an in vitro functional assay, recombinant tick MIF inhibited the migration of human macrophages to the same extent that recombinant human MIF did... - Immunization with the Chlamydia trachomatis major outer membrane protein, using the outer surface protein A of Borrelia burgdorferi as an adjuvant, can induce protection against a chlamydial genital challengeSukumar Pal
Department of Pathology, Medical Sciences, Room D440, University of California, Irvine 92697-4800, USA
Vaccine 21:1455-65. 2003..In conclusion, immunization using C. trachomatis MOMP, and B. burgdorferi OspA as an adjuvant, can induce significant protection against a chlamydial genital challenge... - Geographic differences in genetic locus linkages for Borrelia burgdorferiBridgit Travinsky
University of California, Irvine, California 92697 4028, USA
Emerg Infect Dis 16:1147-50. 2010..ticks in 3 US regions showed linkage disequilibrium between the 2 loci within a region but not consistently between regions... - Ticks have R2 retrotransposons but not the consensus transposon target site of other arthropodsJ Bunikis
Department of Microbiology, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697 4025, USA
Insect Mol Biol 14:465-74. 2005..The substituted region comprises a critical contact point with small subunit rRNA, but in vitro structure probing analysis revealed novel, presumably stabilizing base-pairing... - Antibiotic treatment of the tick vector Amblyomma americanum reduced reproductive fitnessJianmin Zhong
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Pacific Southwest Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infections, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America
PLoS ONE 2:e405. 2007..americanum. The Coxiella sp. was demonstrated in all stages of tick and in greatest densities in nymphs and adult females, while a Rickettsia sp. was less prevalent and in lower densities when present... - Highly prevalent Coxiella sp. bacterium in the tick vector Amblyomma americanumAlgimantas Jasinskas
Deparetments of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California Irvine, Pacific Southwest Center, 3012 Hewitt, Irvine, CA 92697 4028, USA
Appl Environ Microbiol 73:334-6. 2007..and a Rickettsia sp. While the Coxiella sp. was detected in 50 of 50 field-collected ticks, the Rickettsia sp. was absent from 32% of ticks. The Coxiella sp. showed evidence of a reduced genome and may be an obligate endosymbiont... - A reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assay of Borrelia burgdorferi 16S rRNA for highly sensitive quantification of pathogen load in a vectorKatharina Ornstein
Clinical and Experimental Infectious Medicine Section, Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis 6:103-12. 2006..In contrast, there were either no or <or=7 spirochetes in ticks that had fed on OspA-immunized mice... - Fatal spirochetosis due to a relapsing fever-like Borrelia sp. in a northern spotted owlNancy J Thomas
U S Geological Survey, National Wildlife Health Center, 6006 Schroeder Road, Madison, Wisconsin 53711, USA
J Wildl Dis 38:187-93. 2002..The most closely related species is B. hermsii, an agent of relapsing fever in humans in the western United States. This is the first report of a relapsing fever-related Borrelia in a wild bird... - Three major Lyme Borrelia genospecies (Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, B. afzelii and B. garinii) identified by PCR in cerebrospinal fluid from patients with neuroborreliosis in SwedenKatharina Ornstein
Department of Medical Microbiology, Dermatology and Infectious Diseases, Lund University, Sweden
Scand J Infect Dis 34:341-6. 2002..The results of our study confirm that the use of direct molecular analytical methods for Borrelia genospecies identification in clinical specimens can provide epidemiological information additional to that obtained by culture... - An ecological approach to preventing human infection: vaccinating wild mouse reservoirs intervenes in the Lyme disease cycleJean I Tsao
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 101:18159-64. 2004..Thus, where nonmouse hosts play a large role in infection dynamics, vaccination should be directed at additional species... - Structural investigation of Borrelia burgdorferi OspB, a bactericidal Fab targetMichael Becker
Biology Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA
J Biol Chem 280:17363-70. 2005..OspB structure, stability, and possible mechanisms of killing by H6831 and other bactericidal Fabs are discussed in light of the structural data... - Differential telomere processing by Borrelia telomere resolvases in vitro but not in vivoYvonne Tourand
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 4N1 Canada
J Bacteriol 188:7378-86. 2006..Our current results are also expected to facilitate further studies into ResT structure and function, including possible interaction with other Borrelia proteins... - Migratory passerine birds as reservoirs of Lyme borreliosis in EuropePär Comstedt
Department of Microbiology, Umea University, Umea, Sweden
Emerg Infect Dis 12:1087-95. 2006..Migratory passerine birds host epidemiologically important vector ticks and Borrelia species and vary in effectiveness as reservoirs on the basis of their feeding behavior... - Third Borrelia species in white-footed miceJonas Bunikis
Emerg Infect Dis 11:1150-1. 2005 - Crystal structure of neurotropism-associated variable surface protein 1 (Vsp1) of Borrelia turicataeCatherine L Lawson
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, 610 Taylor Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
J Bacteriol 188:4522-30. 2006....
Research Grants
- Pacific-Southwest Ctr for Biodefense & Emerg Infect Dis*Alan Barbour; Fiscal Year: 2007....
- MOLECULAR BASIS OF BORRELIA PATHOGENESISAlan Barbour; Fiscal Year: 2007..We will evaluate this by developing models that are based on currently available data about infection dynamics and then use these early models' deficiencies to direct us in further experimentation and modelbuilding. ..
- BIOLOGY AND CONTROL OF LYME DISEASE BORRELIAAlan Barbour; Fiscal Year: 2004..burgdorferi, its transmission, and reservoir host immunize responses. The results may also have relevance for the control of other vector-bone zoonotic diseases and perhaps for development of novel methods for vaccine delivery. ..