Talk:Borrelia burgdorferi

message: First of all, the one who wrote this article forgot to mention that this is a GRAM NEGATIVE bacteria.
***According to Brock Biology of Microorganisms p 479, B. burgdorferi is a GRAM POSITIVE bacteria.   Bonemeal (talk) 19:13, 15 June 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: If you see something wrong in the article, be bold and fix it yourself. That's why the edit button's there. :) As for your grammar mistakes, I've seen a lot worse from people whose native language is English. Pyrospirit Flames Fire 15:41, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I tried to. But when I press "Save page" it loads for around 5 minutes, then gives me some error. I`ll try again later.--Diurpaneu 16:11, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  Ok, I edited the page. It works now :) I changed that phrase and changed the referance, and also added that it`s a Gram negative bacteria. Diurpaneu 17:47, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Some mistakes

message: "and because the CDC continues to insist that tick bites are the cause, then mainstream medicine remains skeptical. Some believe that the cyst form can lay dormant for months or years, and is easily missed in typical blood tests, and why normal cultures fail."
What is it that the CDC continues to insist?  I'm pretty sure they've accepted that Lyme disease exists and is caused by Borrelia.  ZZYZX 06:55, 10 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  CDC and Lyme disease 

message: User:Fredweis deleted most of the content and said it was "replaced" with Lyme_disease_microbiology (which had existed before), but much of the content never made it over to the other page.  I'll fix that now. 75.41.71.106 15:09, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Merging into [[Lyme_disease_microbiology]] 

message: someone should add that!  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.189.55.65 (talk) 21:49, 15 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Endospores 

message: I am a non-medical person addressing comments to this article's authors (also the article on Lyme Disease). The information I reviewed seemed somewhat dated in several respects. There was no mention of Bb's various OTHER forms: L-form or cell wall deficient, and spore. Also its ability to mask itself behind biofilms and to drill itself into host cells. On the diagnosis side, I saw no reference to a CD-57 blood count. In Feb 2010 my pain doctor (an MD), upon my complaint of lack of responsiveness to his prolotherapy, and my mention of a tick bite in July 2008 followed by a symptomatic period in Sep 2008, concluded that I had Lyme Disease with a co-infection of Bartonellosis (due to my plantar fasciitis symptoms). He ordered a Western Blot and CD-57 test. The test lab ignored both orders and delivered up an ELISA for Lyme, which of course tested negative at that late date. I had to insist on the retest for CD-57, which I had learned from a web-site would indicate a Lyme infection if under 60. My count was 37, confirming my doctor's very confident diagnosis. My treatment MD uses alternative diagnostic and treatment techniques. LD and 4 other co-infections were confirmed by resonance testing using an Avatar machine - according to the principles of Electro-Acupuncture according to Voll (EAV).
There appears to be research indicating Bb's ability to infect macrophages and fibroblasts, the latter explaining my non-responsiveness to prolotherapy. LD is also called a "great imitator" and some of this aspect was covered in the Lyme article. In my case LD (and possibly its co-infections) are manifesting as adrenal exhaustion and hypothyroidism, both of which may have been borderline before the infection. My pain doctor warned me that these infections would go after old injuries, and only recently I have begun manifesting plantar fasciitis in my "good" foot - a sign that Bartonellosis is still alive and well in me.
I humbly request that one or more of the contributors to these articles research these matters and bring the articles up-to-date. I realize that this "story" is far from over at this point in 2010. Thank you,
Glen Burch  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Glen.burch (talk
contribs) 15:31, 12 October 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Integrated "Glen Burch" note, moved from head of page

message: "Borrelia burgdorferi is gram negative only by default because safranin is the last dye used, but in reality spirochetes are not classified as either gram positive or negative." This sentence starts with too much detail for an encyclopedia, and ends by indicating that the sentence itself is irrelevant to the article. I'm deleting it.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.95.203.93 (talk) 18:56, 16 November 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: You shouldn't delete information out of Wikipedia without improving the article. Please do some research and change it, otherwise don't do edits, thx. --178.197.229.27 (talk) 12:21, 4 December 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Gram staining protocol 

message: I was thinking about contributing these  references to Borrelia burgdorferi. Any suggestions on their content/validity etc
Ramamoorthi, N. 2005. The Lyme disease agent exploits a tick protein to infect the mammalian host. Nature. 436: 573-577.
Reference: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v436/n7050/abs/nature03812.html
Hoen, A.G, Margos, G. 2009. Phylogeography of Borrelia burgdorferi in the eastern United States reflects multiple independent Lyme disease emergence events. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 106: 15013-15018.
Reference: http://www.pnas.org/content/106/35/15013.full
Parola, P. 2001. Ticks and Tickborne Bacterial diseases in humans: an emerging infectious threat. Clinical Infectious Diseases. 32: 987-928.
Reference: http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/32/6/897.short  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cheungd (talk • contribs) 01:56, 24 September 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi Cheungd.  In general, you should cite scientific review articles from high-quality sources rather than primary research articles. (Also see this link: ).  The first two papers that you selected are primary sources.  The last paper is a secondary source, but it's old.  Whatever you wanted to add from the review article may be out of date.  You may want to search for a review article in PubMed by clicking on this link: .  CatPath (talk) 18:04, 29 September 2015 (UTC)
thread_title: Refs

message: I added some information to the pathophysiology section, and edited some grammar.  This is a really good article!  This is for a class, so feel free to add/edit any information! Anon330 (talk) 21:54, 25 October 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Edits 

message: I made some grammatical errors and moved some information around. There was good information on the genetic basis of evolution in this organism. There was heavy background on the sequencing of the genome but could use more about the evolution in fitness of the organism. Try looking into articles about the genus Borrelia and its evolutionary timeline. You can even look into the family of Spurochaetaceae. Also do some research into how mutations and gene truncation has contributed to the parasite method of Borrelia burgdorferi. Spreetycakes (talk)  —Preceding undated comment added 14:47, 26 October 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Suggestions 

message: I made some grammatical errors and moved some information around. There was good information on the genetic basis of evolution in this organism. There was heavy background on the sequencing of the genome but could use more about the evolution in fitness of the organism. Try looking into articles about the genus Borrelia and its evolutionary timeline. You can even look into the family of Spurochaetaceae. Also do some research into how mutations and gene truncation has contributed to the parasite method of Borrelia burgdorferi
 Spreetycakes (talk)  —Preceding undated comment added 14:57, 26 October 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  suggestions 

message: Anon330 (talk Going back to the pathophysiology section, however, I noticed that there was a lackluster amount of evidence and data regarding the pathophysiology of Lyme disease and B. Burgdorferi. Naturally I added more information regarding how B. Burgdorferi actually affects a human (changing glycoproteins and proteases, creating an inflammatory response and interacting with specific cells and extracellular proteins in the body). Additionally, I moved the information regarding “iron-sulfur cluster enzymes” because it was originally placed in the pathology section. This information provides no relevant information to pathology and, if anything, can contribute to why the bacteria may act pathophysiologically. I did the same for the information regarding the “seven plasminogen binding proteins. 
Spreetycakes (talk
Grammar errors and movements were taken into account. As per request, I looking into the fitness of the organism and how certain factors could have affected the evolutionary timeline. That being said, I found a reference that detailed the evolutionary history of B. Burgdorferi and found information regarding the effects of balanced selection on B. Burgdorferi. The article detailed 2 main models: the negative frequency dependent selection and multiple niche polymorphism. I added both of these and spoke of them in regards to B. burgdorferi. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any citable or reliable information regarding Spurochaetaceae related to B. Burgdorferi. As for mutations and gene truncations, I couldn’t find much material. Do you have any suggestions for articles, spreetycakes?
In regards to my professor's comments
I did my best to cut down as much wordiness as possible throughout the Wikipedia page, hopefully, I caught most of them. I ended up deleting the claim I made earlier because I did not find strong enough evidence, and I do believe it was a “name-drop”. However I ended up adding a lot more information on pathophysiology and balancing selection factors that have more appropriate conclusions. 
Cheungd (talk)  —Preceding undated comment added 06:56, 7 November 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  response to suggestions 

message: Just noting that since 2013, Borrelia has been placed in the new family Borreliaceae and also that the Lyme-related Borrelia species have been separated in a new genus, Borreliella Adeolu & Gupta, 2015, a move which has been disputed by some (Margos et al., 2017) but reaffirmed by Barbour et al., 2017. References are:
* Gupta, R. S.; Mahmood, S.; Adeolu, M. (2013). A phylogenomic and molecular signature based approach for characterization of the phylum Spirochaetes and its major clades: proposal for a taxonomic revision of the phylum. Frontiers in Microbiology. 4., available online at https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2013.00217
* Adeolu, M.; Gupta, R. S. (2014). A phylogenomic and molecular marker based proposal for the division of the genus Borrelia into two genera: the emended genus Borrelia containing only the members of the relapsing fever Borrelia, and the genus Borreliella gen. nov. containing the members of the Lyme disease Borrelia (Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex). Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. 105(6): 1049-1072., available online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-014-0164-x
* Margos, G.; Marosevic, D.; Cutler, S.; Derdakova, M.; Diuk-Wasser, M.; Emler, S.; Fish, D.; Gray, J.; Hunfeldt, K.-P.; Jaulhac, B.; Kahl, O.; Kovalev, S.; Kraiczy, P.; Lane, R. S.; Lienhard, R.; Lindgren, P. E.; Ogden, N.; Ornstein, K.; Rupprecht, T.; Schwartz, I.; Sing, A.; Straubinger, R. K.; Strle, F.; Voordouw, M.; Rizzoli, A.; Stevenson, B.; Fingerle, V. (2017). There is inadequate evidence to support the division of the genus Borrelia. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 67(4): 1081-1084. 
* Barbour, A. G.; Adeolu, M.; Gupta, R. S. (2017). Division of the genus Borrelia into two genera (corresponding to Lyme disease and relapsing fever groups) reflects their genetic and phenotypic distinctiveness and will lead to a better understanding of these two groups of microbes (Margos et al. (2016) There is inadequate evidence to support the division of the genus Borrelia. Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol. doi: 10.1099/ijsem.0.001717). International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 67(6): 2058-2067.
Since the ramifications are somewhat wide ranging (and also subject to some dispute as noted above), (and I am also a bit busy with other things at present) I have not changed the current article text but may do in the future, or others are welcome to do so. Regards - Tony Tony 1212 (talk) 20:40, 25 January 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Taxonomic changes 2013 onwards 

message: The article correctly states that the genome is unusual, in that it has quite many small chromosomes (or rather, accessory plasmids). Unfortunately the article does not mention more.
It would be interesting to: a) state how many smaller plasmids can be found in most burgdorferi, b) when this was discovered, and c) why this may be unusual compared to many other bacteria. 2A02:8388:1641:8380:3AD5:47FF:FE18:CC7F (talk) 18:40, 18 February 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Genomics: accessory chromosomes 

message: Mothers pass the spirochetes to their children. Iknovate (talk) 15:27, 15 August 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  False: Humans as dead end 

message: needs to read the lede for this article. From the perspective of accuracy, it may be fine (though I cannot imagine the lede actually summarises the article). But from the standpoint of intellectual accessibility, with its opening sensu stricto, its genospecies, its sensu lato, through to its closing mention of Gram negative (and no other description of anything that allows a non-microbiologist to understand anything at all about the organism, and how it functions, apart from the association with Lyme disease)—the lede at present breaks many WP guidelines about the function of the article lede, and about jargon vs clarity of writing (as I understand them). I appreciate that this is not the Simple English WP, but even here, this is not a good, lay-accessible introduction. Stating this as one well versed in such Latin phrases, scholarly apparatus, etc.; but you are not writing for me, here. 2601:246:C700:558:90DC:197A:2A99:87AA (talk) 14:46, 25 January 2022 (UTC)
thread_title: Someone with a little distance from the subject...

message: Added a summary table for Borrelia tests, added a transformation section under Microbiology heading, added more information to bacteriophage section concerning further research. Would appreciate further research into the sources I used, mainly looking for the tertiary looking out now for the tertiary sources where some were gathered. Feel free to edit any of the grammar or cross-check anything I added, but I believe it is 100% accurate.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mic Goodwill (talk • contribs) 22:07, 21 April 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  New Information 4/21/2022