Query: NC_011244:213853 Borrelia recurrentis A1, complete genome
Lineage: Borrelia recurrentis; Borrelia; Spirochaetaceae; Spirochaetales; Spirochaetes; Bacteria
General Information: Borrelia recurrentis isolated from adult patient with louse-borne relapsing fever in Ethiopia. Borrelia recurrentis is the causative agent of louse-borne relapsing fever. Prior to World War II, this organism was responsible for large disease outbreaks with a mortality of up to 40% in much of the world. Currently this disease is limited to parts of Africa, China, and Peru. B. recurrentis is transmitted when infected human body lice (Pediculus humanus) are crushed and their fluids contaminate mucous membranes or breaks in the skin. Relapsing fever is characterized by a period of chills, fever, headache, and malaise, an asymptomatic period, followed by another episode of symptoms. This cycle of relapsing is due to changes in the surface proteins of Borrelia, which allow it to avoid detection and removal by the host immune system. This antigenic variation is the result of homologous recombination of silent proteins into an expressed locus, causing partial or complete replacement of one serotype with another.
Subject: NC_008530:1551356 Lactobacillus gasseri ATCC 33323, complete genome
Lineage: Lactobacillus gasseri; Lactobacillus; Lactobacillaceae; Lactobacillales; Firmicutes; Bacteria
General Information: Lactobacillus gasseri ATCC 33323 is a human isolate and is the type strain. This organism has been shown to have probiotic activities such as production of bacteriocins, macrophage stimulation and adherence to intestinal tissues. Normal gastrointestinal bacterium. They are commonly found in the oral, vaginal, and intestinal regions of many animals. They are important industrial microbes that contribute to the production of cheese, yogurt, and other products such as fermented milks, all stemming from the production of lactic acid, which inhibits the growth of other organisms as well as lowering the pH of the food product. Industrial production requires the use of starter cultures, which are carefully cultivated, created, and maintained, which produce specific end products during fermentation that impart flavor to the final product, as well as contributing important metabolic reactions, such as the breakdown of milk proteins during cheese production. The end product of fermentation, lactic acid, is also being used as a starter molecule for complex organic molecule syntheses. Lactobacillus gasseri is a rod-shaped, gram-positive anaerobe. Of the lactobacilli, it is the most amenable to DNA introduction and manipulation which should prove useful in the functional genomic analysis of this species. It has been shown to be an effective probiotic in suppressing Helicobacter pylori infections in humans.