Abstract：
Don\'t Panic. In the nearly 50 years since the discovery of Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi has emerged as an unlikely workhorse of microbiology. Interest in studying host-pathogen interactions fueled significant progress in making the fastidious microbe approachable in laboratory settings, including the development of culture methods, animal models, and genetic tools. By developing these systems, insight has been gained into how the microbe is able to survive its enzootic cycle and cause human disease. Here, we discuss the discovery of B. burgdorferi and its development as a model organism before diving into the critical lessons we have learned about B. burgdorferi biology at pivotal stages of its lifecycle: gene expression changes during the tick blood meal, colonization of a new vertebrate host, and developing a long-lasting infection in that vertebrate until a new tick feeds. Our goal is to highlight the advancements that have facilitated B. burgdorferi research and identify gaps in our current understanding of the microbe.
摘要：
不要惊慌.发现莱姆病近50年来,伯氏疏螺旋体已经成为微生物学的主力。对研究宿主-病原体相互作用的兴趣推动了在实验室环境中使挑剔的微生物接近的重大进展，包括培养方法的发展，动物模型,和遗传工具。通过开发这些系统，已经深入了解了微生物如何能够在其植物性周期中存活并引起人类疾病。这里,我们讨论了B.burgdorferi的发现及其作为模型生物的发展，然后深入研究了我们在其生命周期的关键阶段学到的关于B.burgdorferi生物学的重要教训：在蜱血粉期间的基因表达变化，一个新的脊椎动物宿主的定殖,并在脊椎动物中持续感染，直到新的蜱虫进食。我们的目标是强调促进B.burgdorferi研究的进展，并确定我们目前对微生物的理解中的差距。
