Borrelia carolinensis sp. nov., a novel species of the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex isolated from rodents and a tick from the south-eastern USA

Abstract

A group of 16 isolates with genotypic characteristics different from those of known species of theBorrelia burgdorferisensu latocomplex were cultured from ear biopsies of the rodentsPeromyscus gossypinusandNeotoma floridanatrapped at five localities in South Carolina, USA, and from the tickIxodes minorfeeding onN. floridana. Multilocus sequence analysis of members of the novel species, involving the 16S rRNA gene, the 5S–23S (rrf–rrl) intergenic spacer region and the flagellin,ospAandp66genes, was conducted and published previously and was used to clarify the taxonomic status of the novel group ofB. burgdorferisensu latoisolates. Phylogenetic analysis based on concatenated sequences of the five analysed genomic loci showed that the 16 isolates clustered together but separately from other species in theB. burgdorferisensu latocomplex. The analysed group therefore represents a novel species, formally described here asBorrelia carolinensissp. nov., with the type strain SCW-22T(=ATCC BAA-1773T=DSM 22119T).