''Candidatus'' Borrelia texasensis is a proposed new strain of the

spirochaete A spirochaete () or spirochete is a member of the phylum Spirochaetota (), (synonym Spirochaetes) which contains distinctive diderm (double-membrane) gram-negative bacteria, most of which have long, helically coiled (corkscrew-shaped or s ...

Borrelia ''Borrelia'' is a genus of bacteria of the spirochete phylum. Several species cause Lyme disease, also called Lyme borreliosis, a zoonotic, vector-borne disease transmitted by ticks. Other species of ''Borrelia'' cause relapsing fever, and are tr ...

''. ''C. ''B. texasensis was "isolated in March 1998 from an adult male ''

Dermacentor variabilis ''Dermacentor variabilis'', also known as the American dog tick or wood tick, is a species of tick that is known to carry bacteria responsible for several diseases in humans, including Rocky Mountain spotted fever and tularemia (''Francisella tul ...

'' tick feeding on a

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecologica ...

from

Webb County, Texas Webb County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 267,114. Its county seat is Laredo. The county was named after James Webb (1792–1856), who served as secretary of the treasury, secreta ...

." According to the discovering researchers from

Georgia Southern University Georgia Southern University (GS or Georgia Southern) is a public research university in the U.S. state of Georgia. The flagship campus is in Statesboro, and other locations include the Armstrong Campus in Savannah and the Liberty Campus in Hine ...

's Institute of Arthropodology and Parasitology, "It differs from other borreliae based on the banding patterns obtained by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA ( RAPD) analysis" along with several other variations including morphological changes identified under electron microscope. The researchers were "unable to revive frozen cultures, so cannot meet the requirements of the

Bacteriological Code The International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP) formerly the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria (ICNB) or Bacteriological Code (BC) governs the scientific names for Bacteria and Archaea.P. H. A. Sneath, 2003. A short histor ...

to deposit viable type material at two different culture collections" leading to the use of the

candidatus In prokaryote nomenclature, ''Candidatus'' (Latin for candidate of Roman office) is used to name prokaryotic phyla that are well characterized but yet-uncultured. Contemporary sequencing approaches, such as 16S sequencing or metagenomics, provide m ...

prefix.

References

texasensis Candidatus taxa Bacteria described in 2005 {{Spirochaetae-stub