Host adaptation drives genetic diversity in a vector-borne disease system

Abstract

Abstract The range of hosts a pathogen can infect is a key trait, influencing human disease risk and reservoir host infection dynamics. Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto (Bb), an emerging zoonotic pathogen, causes Lyme disease and is widely considered a host generalist, commonly infecting mammals and birds. Yet the extent of intraspecific variation in Bb host breadth, its role in determining host competence, and potential implications for human infection remain unclear. We conducted a long-term study of Bb diversity, defined by the polymorphic ospC locus, across white-footed mice, passerine birds, and tick vectors, leveraging long-read amplicon sequencing. Our results reveal strong variation in host breadth across Bb genotypes, exposing a spectrum of genotype-specific host-adapted phenotypes. We found support for multiple niche polymorphism, maintaining Bb diversity in nature and little evidence of temporal shifts in genotype dominance, as would be expected under negative frequency-dependent selection. Passerine birds support the circulation of several human-invasive strains (HISs) in the local tick population and harbor greater Bb genotypic diversity compared with white-footed mice. Mouse-adapted Bb genotypes exhibited longer persistence in individual mice compared with nonadapted genotypes. Genotype communities infecting individual mice preferentially became dominated by mouse-adapted genotypes over time. We posit that intraspecific variation in Bb host breadth and adaptation helps maintain overall species fitness in response to transmission by a generalist vector.