Nutrition

The ecological niche of this bacterium is heavily dependent on the Ixodid ticks. 

Not only are they the primary hosts of B. burgdorferi, 

they act as a carrier of the pathogen, allowing the bacterium to attach to a new mammalian host.

Fig.12. B. burgdorferi Attached to
Host Organisms

B. burgdorferi’s main source of nutrition is parasitic nutrition. 

Parasitic nutrition is a type of heterotrophic nutrition where a parasite that lives on the surface or inside of another host organism feeds off of the nutrients from the digested food.

This endoparasitic bacterium lacks genes required for cellular synthesis and metabolism, 

which is why it needs a host to survive.

B. burgdorferi's capability of changing its nourishment sources from the mammalian blood, such as glucose and other carbohydrates, to the ticks’ hemolymph 

(a fluid in the circulatory system of arthropods) allow the species to survive in the bodies of different hosts.

Fig.13. B. burgdorferi's Enzyme
has been Replaced By Manganese 

B. burgdorferi is one of the few bacteria that don’t require iron in its diet. (In fact, it was the first organism to live without iron.) 

Its iron-sulfur cluster enzymes are replaced by those of manganese.