BORRELIA EVOLUTION AND POPULATION STRUCTURE

拟议的项目旨在深入了解疏螺旋体病原体及其各自的人畜共患脊椎动物水库和节肢动物载体之间的相互作用和关联。 全面表征B的自然居群结构。因此，有必要从其组织的各个层次上取样分离物，以确定决定B之间分布和交换的时间、地理和宿主环境因素。伯氏分离物。 这种抽样的地理要求是通过使用沿海岛屿来满足的，选择这些岛屿是因为它们具有独特的品质，使它们成为跟踪新出现疾病的生态动态的理想天然实验室。 这两个研究中心的时间采样是纵向完成的（通过在研究的每一年每两年对每个岛屿进行一次采样），并通过在不重叠的年度周期中对蜱虫队列进行横断面采样。宿主环境之间的关系可以直接测试，因为疏螺旋体分离株直接从其宿主收集。 将确定来自每个岛屿地点（和每个时间点）的所有小鼠、蜱和疏螺旋体分离株的多位点基因型，从而为评价其各自种群的结构以及这些物种之间的相互作用提供丰富的资源。

The proposed project is designed to gain insight to the interactions and associations between Borrelia pathogens and their respective zoonotic vertebrate reservoirs and arthropod vectors. To fully characterize the structure of natural populations of B. burgdorferi, it is necessary to sample isolates from the various levels of its organization to determine the temporal, geographic, and host environmental factors which determine the distribution and exchangeability among B. burgdorferi isolates. Thes geographic requirements of this sampling are met by the use of coastal islands, which have been chosen for the unique qualities that make them ideal natural laboratories for tracking the ecological dynamics of emerging disease. The temporal sampling of these two sites is accomplished both longitudinally (by sampling each islands bi- annually for each year of the study), and by cross-sectional sampling of the tick cohorts in non-overlapping annual cycle. The relationship between the host environments can be tested directly, since the Borrelia isolates are collected directly from their hostsj. The multi-locus genotypes of all mice, ticks, and Borrelia isolates from each island site (and at each time point) will be determined, thus providing a rich resource for evaluating the structure of their respective populations, and the interactions among these species.