BorreliaBase: a phylogeny-centered browser of Borrelia genomes

BACKGROUND: The bacterial genus Borrelia (phylum Spirochaetes) consists of two groups of pathogens represented respectively by B. burgdorferi, the agent of Lyme borreliosis, and B. hermsii, the agent of tick-borne relapsing fever. The number of publicly available Borrelia genomic sequences is growing rapidly with the discovery and sequencing of Borrelia strains worldwide. There is however a lack of dedicated online databases to facilitate comparative analyses of Borrelia genomes. DESCRIPTION: We have developed BorreliaBase, an online database for comparative browsing of Borrelia genomes. The database is currently populated with sequences from 35 genomes of eight Lyme-borreliosis (LB) group Borrelia species and 7 Relapsing-fever (RF) group Borrelia species. Distinct from genome repositories and aggregator databases, BorreliaBase serves manually curated comparative-genomic data including genome-based phylogeny, genome synteny, and sequence alignments of orthologous genes and intergenic spacers. CONCLUSIONS: With a genome phylogeny at its center, BorreliaBase allows online identification of hypervariable lipoprotein genes, potential regulatory elements, and recombination footprints by providing evolution-based expectations of sequence variability at each genomic locus. The phylo-centric design of BorreliaBase (http://borreliabase.org) is a novel model for interactive browsing and comparative analysis of bacterial genomes online.