Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease in the northern hemisphere and is caused by spirochetes of the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex. Lyme borreliae infect diverse vertebrate reservoirs without triggering apparent manifestations in these animals; however, Lyme borreliae strains differ in their reservoir hosts. The mechanisms that drive those differences are unknown. To survive in vertebrate hosts, Lyme borreliae require the ability to escape from host defense mechanisms, in particular complement. To facilitate the evasion of complement, Lyme borreliae produce diverse proteins at different stages of infection, allowing them to persistently survive without being recognized by hosts and potentially resulting in host-specific infection. This review discusses the current knowledge regarding the ecology and evolutionary mechanisms of Lyme borreliae–host associations driven by complement evasion.

莱姆病是北半球最常见的媒介传播疾病，由伯氏疏螺旋体的螺旋体引起森苏拉托情结。博莱姆病原菌感染各种脊椎动物水库，而不会触发这些动物的明显表现。然而，莱姆氏疏螺旋体菌株在它们的储藏宿主中不同。导致这些差异的机制尚不清楚。为了在脊椎动物宿主中生存，莱姆病需要逃避宿主防御机制（特别是补体）的能力。为了促进补体的逃逸，疏螺旋体在不同的感染阶段会产生多种蛋白质，从而使它们能够持续生存而不会被宿主识别，并可能导致宿主特异性感染。这篇综述讨论了有关补体逃避驱动的莱姆病-宿主关联的生态学和进化机制的当前知识。