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*Lyme Disease

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Journal of Bacteriology, December 2004, p. 8472-8477, Vol. 186, No. 24
0021-9193/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.186.24.8472-8477.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

The Etiological Agent of Lyme Disease, Borrelia burgdorferi, Appears To Contain Only a Few Small RNA Molecules{dagger}

Yngve Östberg, Ignas Bunikis, Sven Bergström, and Jörgen Johansson*

Department of Molecular Biology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

Received 24 June 2004/ Accepted 8 September 2004

Small regulatory RNAs (sRNAs) have recently been shown to be the main controllers of several regulatory pathways. The function of sRNAs depends in many cases on the RNA-binding protein Hfq, especially for sRNAs with an antisense function. In this study, the genome of Borrelia burgdorferi was subjected to different searches for sRNAs, including direct homology and comparative genomics searches and ortholog- and annotation-based search strategies. Two new sRNAs were found, one of which showed complementarity to the rpoS region, which it possibly controls by an antisense mechanism. The role of the other sRNA is unknown, although observed complementarities against particular mRNA sequences suggest an antisense mechanism. We suggest that the low level of sRNAs observed in B. burgdorferi is at least partly due to the presumed lack of both functional Hfq protein and RNase E activity.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Molecular Biology, Umeå University, SE-901 87, Umeå, Sweden. Phone: (46-90)-7856720. Fax: (46-90)-772630. E-mail: jorgen.johansson{at}molbiol.umu.se.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://jb.asm.org/.

Journal of Bacteriology, December 2004, p. 8472-8477, Vol. 186, No. 24
0021-9193/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.186.24.8472-8477.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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