Detection and heterogeneity of Borrelia burgdorferi in Ixodes ticks by culture-dependent and culture-independent methods
Authors: Xu G, Wesker J, White C, Campbell J, Reich NG and Rich SM
Citation: J. Clin. Microbiol. 2012(Nov)
Location: Laboratory of Medical Zoology, Department of Microbiology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA.
DOI: 10.1128/JCM.03009-12
Abstract
Ability to detect heterogeneity of ospC genotypes of the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, in the tick vector by in vitro culture (IVC) and direct PCR (dPCR) was compared. IVC failed to detect one third of the ospC genotypes detected by dPCR. Among IVC results, common ospC genotypes were overrepresented while occurrence of rare genotypes was
underestimated.