Figure 4

Use case 3. Identify conserved regulatory sequence. In this alignment view of the promoter region of the ospA/ospB operon, a dot (“.”) represents a nucleotide or a gap that is the same as in strain SV1, the closest outgroup of B. burgdorferi sensu stricto and used as the reference. Known cis-regulatory elements within this promoter region are highly conserved across LB-group Borrelia species, including, from left to right, a direct repeat (DR, in purple) and the T-rich region (in yellow) associated with RpoS-mediated repression in mammalian environment, the putative RpoD-binding sites (−35 region in green and −10 region in blue), the transcription start site (“+1”, in pink), and the ribosome-binding site (RBS, in orange).