Comparative study of the enzyme activities of Borrelia burgdorferi and other non-intestinal and intestinal spirochaetes.

Comparative analysis of the enzymatic profiles of 58 spirochaetal isolates clearly differentiated borrelias from leptospires, serpulinas and a treponeme. Strains of both Borrelia burgdorferi and Borrelia hermsii characteristically produced significant amounts of leucine arylamidase. This enzyme activity was not unique to borrelias but was also detected amongst pathogenic and non-pathogenic leptospira serovars. This fact, however, did not hamper a correct differentiation of borrelias from these spirochaetes, because leptospires possessed unique enzyme profiles. The API ZYM system could not differentiate the human strains of B. burgdorferi from those isolated from ticks, or from B. hermsii. Treponema phagedenis could be differentiated from all the other spirochaetes by the production of alpha-fucosidase. Our results confirm and extend previous studies indicating that human and animal intestinal spirochaetes have many common enzyme activities. All strains produced reactions of maximum intensity when tested for the presence of beta-galactosidase activity. However the avian strains lacked esterase (C4) which was present in human and swine intestinal spirochaetes. All strains of Serpulina hyodysenteriae, and Serpulina innocens as well as the human intestinal spirochaete strain HRM-14 showed alpha and beta glucosidase activity. Both enzyme activities were absent or insignificant in most other intestinal spirochaetes examined: 25 different human strains, non-pathogenic swine strain M1 and the avian strain 4742. However, swine strain LL3 and avian strain 1380 showed some beta-glucosidase activity.