Odporność nornicy rudej na boreliozę
Bank vole resistance to Lyme disease

Summary/Abstract: Bank vole is a highly adaptive forest species of rodent. It is known to be a reservoir of Borrelia sp. spirochetes, the etiological agent of Lyme disease. Bank vole also developed the adaptation in membrane Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) gene to avoid disease development. TLR2 is involved in pathogen recognition and initiation of immune response. In Swedish populations of bank vole three different groups of haplotypes of TLR2 gene partial sequence (1173 bp) were found. The frequencies of two of them (c1 and c2) were directly correlated with the incidence of Lyme disease in bank vole populations. Morbidity among vole populations varied from 16 to 50% and depended on gene variants. Higher resistance was found in populations, where c2 TLR2 haplotypes were present. Recent studies have shown that TLR2 sequence in bank vole is under positive selection. Individuals with adaptive variants (c2 group) may have had an evolutionary advantage in environments with high frequency of infected vectors (mainly ticks).

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