Lyme microbe forms convenient bond with tick protein
By Nathan Seppa
Tests in mice indicate that the bacterium that causes Lyme disease can commandeer a gene in its interim host—the deer tick—enabling the bacterium to escape immune detection once inside a mammal.
Researchers at Yale University report in the July 28 Nature that the Lyme microbe, Borrelia burgdorferi, activates a gene in the tick, boosting production of a salivary protein called Salp-15.
Conveniently for the bacterium, it can bind to this protein, Yale microbiologist Nandhini Ramamoorthi and her colleagues note. When a tick bites a person or another mammal, the Salp-15-coated bacteria enter through the skin, she says.