Influence of Cultivation Media on Genetic Regulatory Patterns in Borrelia burgdorferi

Abstract

ABSTRACT Barbour-Stoenner-Kelly II (BSKII) medium and BSKH medium both are routinely used for the cultivation of Borrelia burgdorferi . However, heretofore there have been no studies to compare how these two media affect gene expression patterns in virulent B. burgdorferi . In the present study, we found that some B. burgdorferi strain 297 genes (e.g., ospA , mlp-7A , mlp-8 , p22 , and lp6.6 ) that typically are regulated by temperature or pH displayed their predicted pattern of expression when B. burgdorferi was cultivated in BSKH medium; this was not true when spirochetes were cultivated in conventional BSKII medium. The results suggest that BSKH medium is superior to BSKII medium for gene expression studies with B. burgdorferi .