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Clonal Polymorphism of Surface Antigens in a Relapsing Fever Borrelia Species

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The Pathogenesis of Bacterial Infections

Part of the book series: Bayer-Symposium ((BAYER-SYMP,volume 8))

Summary

Borrelia hermsii, the agent of relapsing fever, manifests an extensive antigenic repertoire during infection of a host. Abundant, trypsin-releasable proteins at the surface of the spirochete confer serotype specificity on each organism. These serotype-specific, or pI, proteins differ in apparent molecular weight, in structure as assessed by peptide mapping, and in activities with polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies. There is evidence for some conserved structure also; one of the monoclonal antibodies reacts with pI proteins from two or five serotypes examined. The biology of B. hermsii in both the mouse host and in synthetic medium, and the uniqueness of its surface proteins suggest that isogenic populations of Borrelia are polymorphic with respect to the pI proteins and that each pI protein represents a different allele.

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Authors
  1. A. G. Barbour
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases, The University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, Box 6998, 60680, Chicago, IL, USA

    George Gee Jackson

  2. Bayer AG, Pharma-Forschungszentrum, Institut für Chemotherapie, Postfach 101709, D-5600, Wuppertal 1, Germany

    Herbert Thomas

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© 1985 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Barbour, A.G. (1985). Clonal Polymorphism of Surface Antigens in a Relapsing Fever Borrelia Species. In: Jackson, G.G., Thomas, H. (eds) The Pathogenesis of Bacterial Infections. Bayer-Symposium, vol 8. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-70351-5_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-70351-5_20

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-70353-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-70351-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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