Figure 3. Reduced vlsE sequence diversity generated following inoculation of C3H/HeN mice with the ruvA mutant T11P01A01.

Clones were isolated from C3H/HeN mice 28 days post inoculation with (A) the parental strain 5A18NP1 or (B) T11P01A01. The vlsE cassette region sequences of each clone were optimally aligned and then analyzed for sequence diversity using a phylogenetic tree program. The 5A18NP1 clones were isolated from a single mouse, whereas the T11P01A01 clones were obtained from all positive cultures of 6 inoculated mice. The groups of clones isolated from each mouse and their tissue source are indicated. In (A), brackets demarcate clusters of related (but often nonidentical) clones that occurred in the mouse infected with 5A18NP1. In the 5A18NP1 group, there were 31 unique vlsE sequences, 10 sequences with siblings, and 0 parental sequences. In (B), brackets indicate clones with identical vlsE sequences that were isolated from the 6 mice, frequently from multiple tissues. In this group of clones from mice inoculated with the ruvA mutant, there were 0 unique sequences, 8 sequences with many siblings, and 3 parental sequences. Trees are rooted with the 5A18NP1 parental vlsE sequence. A larger version of this figure is available at the website http://www.uth.tmc.edu/pathology/borrelia/.