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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, April 2009, p. 2476-2483, Vol. 75, No. 8
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02633-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Climate and Tick Seasonality Are Predictors of Borrelia burgdorferi Genotype Distribution ^,

Anne G. Gatewood ,^1,, Kelly A. Liebman,^1,,¶ Gwenaël Vourc'h,² Jonas Bunikis,^3,# Sarah A. Hamer,⁴ Roberto Cortinas,⁵ Forrest Melton,^6,7 Paul Cislo,¹ Uriel Kitron,⁸ Jean Tsao,^4,9 Alan G. Barbour,³ Durland Fish,¹ and Maria A. Diuk-Wasser^1*

Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale School of Medicine, 60 College Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06520,¹ National Institute for Agricultural Research, UR346 Animal Epidemiology, F-63122 Saint Genès Champanelle, France,² Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California, Irvine, 3046 Hewitt Hall, Irvine, California 92697,³ Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, 13 Natural Resources Building, East Lansing, Michigan 48824,⁴ Department of Entomology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 12BA Entomology Hall, East Campus, Lincoln, Nebraska 68583,⁵ Division of Science and Environmental Policy, California State University Monterey Bay, 100 Campus Center, Seaside, California 93955,⁶ NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California 94035,⁷ Department of Environmental Studies, Emory University, 400 Dowman Drive, Atlanta, Georgia 30322,⁸ Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824⁹

Received 17 November 2008/ Accepted 13 February 2009

The blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis, is of significant public health importance as a vector of Borrelia burgdorferi, the agent of Lyme borreliosis. The timing of seasonal activity of each immature I. scapularis life stage relative to the next is critical for the maintenance of B. burgdorferi because larvae must feed after an infected nymph to efficiently acquire the infection from reservoir hosts. Recent studies have shown that some strains of B. burgdorferi do not persist in the primary reservoir host for more than a few weeks, thereby shortening the window of opportunity between nymphal and larval feeding that sustains their enzootic maintenance. We tested the hypothesis that climate is predictive of geographic variation in the seasonal activity of I. scapularis, which in turn differentially influences the distribution of B. burgdorferi genotypes within the geographic range of I. scapularis. We analyzed the relationships between climate, seasonal activity of I. scapularis, and B. burgdorferi genotype frequency in 30 geographically diverse sites in the northeastern and midwestern United States. We found that the magnitude of the difference between summer and winter daily temperature maximums was positively correlated with the degree of seasonal synchrony of the two immature stages of I. scapularis. Genotyping revealed an enrichment of 16S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer restriction fragment length polymorphism sequence type 1 strains relative to others at sites with lower seasonal synchrony. We conclude that climate-associated variability in the timing of I. scapularis host seeking contributes to geographic heterogeneities in the frequencies of B. burgdorferi genotypes, with potential consequences for Lyme borreliosis morbidity.

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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: 60 College St., P.O. Box 208034, New Haven, CT 06520-8034. Phone: (203) 785-4434. Fax: (203) 785-3604. E-mail: maria.diuk{at}yale.edu

Published ahead of print on 27 February 2009.

Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://aem.asm.org/.

A. G. Gatewood and K. A. Liebman contributed equally to this work.

Present address: Children's Hospital Informatics Program, Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, 1 Autumn Street, Boston, MA 02215.

^¶ Present address: Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis, 1 Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616.

^# Present address: Department of Infectious Diseases, Dermatovenerology and Microbiology, Vilnius University, Birutes Str. 1, LT-08117 Vilnius, Lithuania.

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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, April 2009, p. 2476-2483, Vol. 75, No. 8
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02633-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

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