Cross-reactivity of antibody responses to Borrelia afzelii OspC : Asymmetry and host heterogeneity
The tick-transmitted bacterium Borrelia afzelii consists of a number of antigenically different strains — often defined by outer surface protein C (OspC) genotype — that coexist at stable frequencies in host populations. To investigate how host antibody responses affect strain coexistence, we measured antibody cross-reactivity to three different OspC types (OspC 2, 3 and 9) in three different stra
