Borrelia Genomics as a Tool for Studying Pathogenesis and Vaccine Development

The classical approach to vaccine development requires cultivation of the pathogenic microorganism and concomitant biochemical, serological, and microbiological methods to identify the components important for immunity. This scheme has been successful in many cases, although it is both time-consuming and time-intensive in terms of labor. Whole-genome sequencing has revolutionized the search for vaccine candidates, as it will be possible to predict all of the antigens, independent of their abundance and immunogenicity. This strategy will reduce the need for growth of the pathogen in vitro and for time-consuming biochemical, serological, and microbiological work. The resulting increase in our knowledge of the pathogenicity and virulence of pathogenic microorganisms will facilitate the ease and probability of success in vaccine development. Since this process of vaccine discovery uses sequence information rather than the biological characteristics of the pathogen, it has been named reverse vaccinology (1–3). This approach to vaccine development could also be a tool to develop new vaccine candidates for infections caused by relapsing fever (RF) Borrelia spirochetes and for the development of second-generation vaccine candidates of Lyme disease (LD) Borrelia. This chapter examines how the genome sequence of B. burgdorferi has increased our understanding of the biology of Borrelia spirochetes, and how this knowledge can be used in vaccine development.