Borrelia burgdorferi is a spirochaete bacterium associated with Lyme disease and transmission through ticks. It is one member of a broader collection of related Lyme-associated organisms; identifying this species does not mean that every case worldwide has the same bacterial cause.
Its genome organization is unusual enough to make a useful molecular example: naturally occurring plasmids include both linear and circular forms. [ref]
Conservation of plasmid maintenance functions between linear and circular plasmids in Borrelia burgdorferi by Philip E. Stewart and others. 2003, abstract opening: natural linear and circular plasmids
Thus the word plasmid does not require circular geometry. Maintaining an extra replicating DNA molecule requires functions for inheritance as well as replication, and similarity of those functions need not imply identical overall topology. Articles by others on the same topic
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