= Borrelia burgdorferi
{c}
<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. <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]{ref} 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.
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