Detection of Borrelia burgdorferi gene expression during mammalian infection using transcriptional fusions that produce green fluorescent protein

Jennifer C. Miller, Kate von Lackum, Michael E. Woodman, Brian Stevenson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

26 Scopus citations

Abstract

A novel, infectious Borrelia burgdorferi that expresses green fluorescent protein (GFP) was developed to examine the utility of this marker protein to label live bacteria during infection processes. Use of a borrelial erpAB promoter to direct gfp transcription supported previous indications that B. burgdorferi expresses erp genes during chronic mammalian infection and during acquisition by feeding ticks. Live bacteria fluoresced and were seen to be located extracellularly in infected mice and within midguts of infected ticks. These results indicate that transcriptional fusions between B. burgdorferi promoters and gfp can be useful tools to examine spirochete gene expression in vivo.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)43-47
Number of pages5
JournalMicrobial Pathogenesis
Volume41
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2006

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
These studies were funded by US National Institutes of Health Grants R01 AI44252 and T32 AI49795. We thank Kelly Babb, Sara Bair, Jerry Bowman, Tomasz Bykowski, Anne Cooley, Sarah Kearns, Natalie Mickelsen and Sean Riley for assistance.

Keywords

  • Borrelia burgdorferi
  • Gene fusion
  • Lyme disease
  • Spirochete

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Microbiology
  • Infectious Diseases

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