Variation in antigenicity and infectivity of derivatives of Borrelia burgdorferi, strain B31, maintained in the natural, zoonotic cycle compared with maintenance in culture

The original isolate of Borrelia burgdorferi, strain B31, can be maintained in vitro indefinitely. A number of studies have demonstrated that there are recognizable changes in the genetic composition of the spirochete after more than 60 passages. We have maintained B31 in the natural zoonotic cycle of transmission of infection between laboratory mice and laboratory-reared Ixodes ticks. To determine whether similar changes occur in the natural transmission cycle, we reisolated strain B31 from mouse skin at the fifth zoonotic cycle. This reisolated derivative had the same infectivity as the parent B31 strain, had lost the 8-kb supercoiled plasmid present in B31, and induced a gross serum antibody response indistinguishable from the B31 immune response. Analysis of antigen expression with monoclonal antibodies generated against B31, however, showed differential expres-sion of a subset of antigens between B31 and the reisolated derivative. The infectivity and pathogenicity of the Lyme disease spiro-chete Borrelia burgdorferimaintained in vitro differ significantly from those of fresh isolates. We and others have compared the differences in immunogenicity, infectivity, and genetic profile between low- and high-passage derivatives. High-passage de-rivatives of the strains analyzed tend to lose plasmids afte