Determination of Borrelia Surface lipoprotein anchor topology by surface proteolysis

Abstract

We used a surface trypsinolysis assay to probe accessibility of the membrane-proximal N-terminal tether peptides of Borrelia surface lipoproteins OspA and Vsp1. Our findings with both wild-type and mutant proteins are only compatible with the anchoring of these surface lipoproteins in the outer leaflet of the outer spirochetal membrane. © 2011, American Society for Microbiology.