ArticleThe ISME journal2021
Competition between strains of Borrelia afzelii in the host tissues and consequences for transmission to ticks.
Article in The ISME journal, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- The First Study ofPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- European human granulocytic anaplasmosis is caused by a subcluster ofCurrent research in parasitology & vector-borne diseases · 2025Article
- Adaptive immunity inApplied and environmental microbiology · 2024Article
- Vector competence of Ixodes ricinus instars for the transmission of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in different small mammalian hosts.Parasites & vectors · 2024Article
- Meta-analysis of tick-borne and other pathogens: Co-infection or co-detection? That is the question.Current research in parasitology & vector-borne diseases · 2024Review
- Tick-to-host transmission differs betweenMicrobiology spectrum · 2023Article
- Variation among strains of Borrelia burgdorferi in host tissue abundance and lifetime transmission determine the population strain structure in nature.PLoS pathogens · 2023Article
- Competition of SARS-CoV-2 variants on the pandemic transmission dynamics.Chaos, solitons, and fractals · 2023Article
- Borrelia burgdorferi strain and host sex influence pathogen prevalence and abundance in the tissues of a laboratory rodent host.Molecular ecology · 2022Article
- Selective COVID-19 Coinfections in Diabetic Patients with Concomitant Cardiovascular Comorbidities Are Associated with Increased Mortality.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Utilizing Two Borrelia bavariensis Isolates Naturally Lacking the PFam54 Gene Array To Elucidate the Roles of PFam54-Encoded Proteins.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2022Article
- Infection with Borrelia afzelii and manipulation of the egg surface microbiota have no effect on the fitness of immature Ixodes ricinus ticks.Scientific reports · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Pathogen species often consist of genetically distinct strains, which can establish mixed infections or coinfections in the host. In coinfections, interactions between pathogen strains can have important consequences for their transmission success. We used the tick-borne bacterium Borrelia afzelii, which is the most common cause of Lyme disease in Europe, as a model multi-strain pathogen to investigate the relationship between coinfection, competition between strains, and strain-specific transmission success. Mus musculus mice were infected with one or two strains of B. afzelii, strain transmission success was measured by feeding ticks on mice, and the distribution of each strain in six different mouse organs and the ticks was measured using qPCR. Coinfection and competition reduced the tissue infection prevalence of both strains and changed their bacterial abundance in some tissues. Coinfection and competition also reduced the transmission success of the B. afzelii strains from the infected hosts to feeding ticks. The ability of the B. afzelii strains to establish infection in the host tissues was strongly correlated with their transmission success to the tick vector. Our study demonstrates that coinfection and competition between pathogen strains inside the host tissues can have major consequences for their transmission success.
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