History and morphology B. miyamotoi was discovered in 1995 when it was isolated from a population of
Ixodes persulcates ticks on the
Japanese island of
Hokkaido. It was first detected in the United States in 2001.
B. miyamotoi is a
gram-negative,
anaerobic,
obligate parasitic bacterium with a spiraling corkscrew shape.
Genetics The bacterial
genome is physically made up of one linear
chromosome, twelve linear
plasmids, and two circular plasmids, which encode a total of 1362
genes. Four distinct
genotypes of
B. miyamotoi have been demonstrated based on examples isolated from Asia, Europe, and North America. It is also known to evade components of the
complement cascade, part of
innate immune system, which mounts the initial response to an infection. == Disease ==