ReviewMicrobiology spectrum2014
vls Antigenic Variation Systems of Lyme Disease Borrelia: Eluding Host Immunity through both Random, Segmental Gene Conversion and Framework Heterogeneity.
Review in Microbiology spectrum, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 77 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
77 citing papers in PubMed, 101 citations in OpenAlex.
- Review
- Many hosts, many solutions: How reservoirs shape Borrelia protein diversity.PLoS pathogens · 2026Article
- Bactofilins are essential spatial organizers of peptidoglycan insertion in the Lyme disease spirocheteJournal of bacteriology · 2026Article
- Protective efficacy of mutant strains ofInfection and immunity · 2026Article
- Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato Employs Several Escape Mechanisms to Bypass the Human Defense System.European journal of immunology · 2026Review
- Lyme borreliosis.Nature reviews. Disease primers · 2026Review
- Oxford nanopore technology R10 improved assembly metrics of Borrelia plasmids compared to R9.BMC genomics · 2026Article
- Characterization ofMicroorganisms · 2026Article
- Characterizing the impact of intracutaneous dissemination on host responses duringFrontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- The wild, wild west of plasmids: First insights into comparative genomics of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato.PloS one · 2026Article
- From forest floor to doctor's office: the immunological journey ofFrontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Unravelling the genomic landscape of CanadianMicrobial genomics · 2026Article
- Borrelia surface proteins: new horizons in Lyme disease diagnosis.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2025Review
- Breaking a barrier: In trans vlsE recombination and genetic manipulation of the native vlsE gene of the Lyme disease pathogen.PLoS pathogens · 2025Article
- Do white-footed mice, the main reservoir of the Lyme disease pathogen in the United States, clinically respond to the borrelial tenancy?Infection and immunity · 2024Article
- The plasmid-encoded members of paralogous gene family 52 are dispensable to the enzootic cycle ofInfection and immunity · 2024Article
- Hitchhiker's Guide toJournal of bacteriology · 2024Review
- Article
- Suppression of host humoral immunity byInfection and immunity · 2024Article
- Meta-analysis of the Vmp-like sequences of Lyme diseaseFrontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
17 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Spirochetes that cause Lyme borreliosis (also called Lyme disease) possess the vls locus, encoding an elaborate antigenic variation system. This locus contains the expression site vlsE as well as a contiguous array of vls silent cassettes, which contain variations of the central cassette region of vlsE. The locus is present on one of the many linear plasmids in the organism, e.g. plasmid lp28-1 in the strain Borrelia burgdorferi B31. Changes in the sequence of vlsE occur continuously during mammalian infection and consist of random, segmental, unidirectional recombination events between the silent cassettes and the cassette region of vlsE. These gene conversion events do not occur during in vitro culture or the tick portion of the infection cycle of B. burgdorferi or the other related Borrelia species that cause Lyme disease. The mechanism of recombination is largely unknown, but requires the RuvAB Holliday junction branch migrase. Other features of the vls locus also appear to be required, including cis locations of vlsE and the silent cassettes and high G+C content and GC skew. The vls system is required for long-term survival of Lyme Borrelia in infected mammals and represents an important mechanism of immune evasion. In addition to sequence variation, immune selection also results in significant heterogeneity in the sequence of the surface lipoprotein VlsE. Despite antigenic variation, VlsE generates a robust antibody response, and both full-length VlsE and the C6 peptide (corresponding to invariant region 6) are widely used in immunodiagnostic tests for Lyme disease.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.