JCM Accepts, published online ahead of print on 21 October 2009

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J. Clin. Microbiol. doi:10.1128/JCM.01050-09
Copyright (c) 2009, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Delineation of a new species of the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex, Borrelia americana sp.nov

Nataliia Rudenko^*, Maryna Golovchenko, Tao Lin, Lihui Gao, Libor Grubhoffer, and James H. Oliver Jr.

Georgia Southern University, James H. Oliver, Jr. Institute of Arthropodology and Parasitology, Statesboro, GA, 30460-8056, USA; Biology Centre, Institute of Parasitology AS CR and Faculty of Sciences University of South Bohemia, eské Budjovice, 37005, Czech Republic

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: natasha{at}paru.cas.cz.

Analysis of borrelia isolates collected from ticks, birds and rodents from the southeastern United States revealed the presence of well established populations of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, Borrelia bissettii, Borrelia carolinensis and Borrelia sp. nov. Multilocus sequence analysis of five genomic loci from seven samples representing Borrelia sp. nov. isolated from nymphal Ixodes minor collected in South Carolina showed their close relatedness to California strains known as genomospecies 1 and separation from any other known species of B. burgdorferi sensu lato complex. One nucleotide difference in the size of 5S-23S intergenic spacer region, 1 substitution in 16S rRNA gene signature nucleotides, and silent nucleotide substitutions in sequences of flagellin and p66 genes clearly separate Borrelia sp. nov. isolates from South Carolina into two subgroups. The sequences of isolates of each subgroup share the same RFLP patterns of 5S-23S intergenic spacer region and contain unique signature nucleotides in the 16S rRNA gene. We propose that seven Borrelia sp. nov. isolates from South Carolina and two California isolates designated as genomospecies 1 comprise a single species which we name Borrelia americana sp. nov. The currently recognized geographic distribution of B. americana is South Carolina and California. All strains are associated with Ixodes pacificus or Ixodes minor and their rodent and bird hosts.