Pre_GI: SWBIT SVG BLASTP

Query: NC_010673:479552 Borrelia hermsii DAH, complete genome

Lineage: Borrelia hermsii; Borrelia; Spirochaetaceae; Spirochaetales; Spirochaetes; Bacteria

General Information: This strain was isolated from a case of relapsing fever in western Washington, USA. Borrelia hermsii is the causative agent of tick-borne relapsing fever in the western United States and Canada. Borrelia then multiplies rapidly, causing a generalized infection throughout the tick. While feeding, the tick passes the organism into a mammalian host through its infectious saliva. 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. These plasmids carry genes involved in antigenic variation and pathogenicity.

Subject: NC_010424:14657 Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator MP104C, complete genome

Lineage: Desulforudis audaxviator; Desulforudis; Peptococcaceae; Clostridiales; Firmicutes; Bacteria

General Information: Its genome indicates a motile, sporulating, sulfate-reducing, chemoautotrophic thermophile that can fix its own nitrogen and carbon by using machinery shared with archaea. Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator is a gram positive sulfate reducing bacteria identified in fracture water from a borehole at a depth of 2.8 km in a South African gold mine. Water from these boreholes is very old (low-biodiversity fracture water), suggesting that these bacteria have been isolated from the Earth's surface for as much as several million years.