Borrelia yangtzensis sp. nov. a rodent associated species in Asia is related to B. valaisiana.

Borrelia yangtzensis sp. nov. a rodent associated species in Asia is related to B. valaisiana. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol. 2015 Aug 3; Authors: Margos G, Chu CY, Takano A, Jiang BG, Liu W, Kurtenbach K, Masuzawa T, Fingerle V, Cao WC, Kawabata H Abstract Twenty nine isolates of Lyme borreliosis (LB) group spirochetes collected from ticks and rodents in China and Japan were included into multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA). Using a different typing system, three of these strains had previously been identified as being divergent from other LB spirochete species and the name "Borrelia yangtze" sp. nov. was proposed. The data presented here confirm that the genetic distance calculated using sequences of MLSA housekeeping genes to other known LB group spirochete species was <95 % and to B. valaisiana 96.67 % (which represents the closest related species within the group of LB spirochetes). This and the fact that these strains are ecologically distinct from B. valaisiana (rodent transmitted vs bird transmitted) provide strong support for the validation of the proposed species status. We suggest the name B. yangtzensis sp. nov.. The type strain is Okinawa CW62T (= DSM 24625 T = JCM 17189 T). PMID: 26239825 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: Int J Syst Evol Microbiol Source Type: research