Vancomycin Reduces Cell Wall Stiffness and Slows Swim Speed of the Lyme Disease Bacterium.

Borrelia burgdorferi, the spirochete that causes Lyme disease, is a tick-transmitted pathogen that requires motility to invade and colonize mammalian and tick hosts. These bacteria use a unique undulating flat-wave shape to penetrate and propel themselves through host tissues. Previous mathematical modeling has suggested that the morphology and motility of these spirochetes depends crucially on the flagellar/cell wall stiffness ratio.