Although the discovery leads to as many new questions as it does answers, it hopefully will lead to accurate diagnostic tests and better treatment for the disease, as well as effective vaccines. These developments still lie years in the future, however, because of the new mysteries that have been uncovered about Bb through this research. Claire M. Fraser and a team of 38 other biologists at the Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, Md., and other institutions, made the breakthrough in approximately 18 months, compared to years of research previously required for sequencing.
Bacteria usually transfer genes which are antibiotic resistant from one another through plasmids.
P lasmids carry a myriad of genes that produce lipoproteins, which are substances that form the coat of Bb. The spirochete may have the ability to alter the makeup of its coat by interchanging between these lipoprotein genes, and thus avoid detection by the different immune systems defenses waged by each of its various hosts. I t still remains unexplained why Bb is able to resist a strong immune-system response in humans for years, a question that hopefully will be answered in years to come due to the new genetic data that has been uncovered. The research has possibly helped uncover why the organism Bb chooses a tick as its host. It seems that it needs substances found in ticks, and this opens the door to the possibility of fighting the organism by obstructing it from ingesting this substance.