Borrelia burgdorferi 5'' end Transcriptome

Understanding the transcriptome of a bacterial pathogen is critical to gain insight into its pathogenesis. Lyme disease is a multi-stage and debilitating bacterial infection, brought on by Borrelia burgdorferi transmission via an infected Ixodes scapularis tick. 5' end RNA-seq has been validated and shown to be a valuable discovery tool for a variety of organisms. We applied 5' end RNA-seq to B. burgdorferi grown in culture and identified 6,042 transcription start sites across the genome. This dataset provides a significant resource for the spirochete community and others interested in bacterial transcriptomes.