0000000000480634
AUTHOR
Marta Pla-díaz
Ancient bacterial genomes reveal a formerly unknown diversity ofTreponema pallidumstrains in early modern Europe
SummarySexually transmitted (venereal) syphilis marked European history with a devastating epidemic at the end of the 15thcentury, and is currently re-emerging globally. Together with non-venereal treponemal diseases, like bejel and yaws, found in subtropical and tropical regions, it poses a prevailing health threat worldwide. The origins and spread of treponemal diseases remain unresolved, including syphilis’ potential introduction into Europe from the Americas. Here, we present the first genetic data from archaeological human remains reflecting a previously unknown diversity ofTreponema pallidumin historical Europe. Our study demonstrates that a variety of strains related to both venereal…
Molecular characterization of Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum in Switzerland and France with a new multilocus sequence typing scheme
Syphilis is an important public health problem and an increasing incidence has been noted in recent years. Characterization of strain diversity through molecular data plays a critical role in the epidemiological understanding of this re-emergence. We here propose a new high-resolution multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme for Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum (TPA). We analyzed 30 complete and draft TPA genomes obtained directly from clinical samples or from rabbit propagated strains to identify suitable typing loci and tested the new scheme on 120 clinical samples collected in Switzerland and France. Our analyses yielded three loci with high discriminatory power: TP0136, TP0548, and TP…
Ancient bacterial genomes reveal a high diversity of Treponema pallidum Strains in early Modern Europe
Syphilis is a globally re-emerging disease, which has marked European history with a devastating epidemic at the end of the 15th century. Together with non-venereal treponemal diseases, like bejel and yaws, which are found today in subtropical and tropical regions, it currently poses a substantial health threat worldwide. The origins and spread of treponemal diseases remain unresolved, including syphilis’ potential introduction into Europe from the Americas. Here, we present the first genetic data from archaeological human remains reflecting a high diversity of Treponema pallidum in early modern Europe. Our study demonstrates that a variety of strains related to both venereal syphilis and y…
Genomic Analysis of Bacterial Outbreaks
The study of outbreaks of infectious diseases has been revolutionized by the current availability of fast and efficient, high-throughput methods capable of yielding the nucleotide sequence of complete genomes of viruses and bacteria within a few days, or even hours. These methods are replacing previous molecular techniques which have been used for the past 30 years, although many of them are still the usual approach for many such investigations. Here we review the major technologies currently in use for high-throughput sequencing of bacterial genomes emphasizing their advantages and drawbacks for the analysis of outbreaks. The use of more efficient methods does not necessarily mean that all…
Evolutionary processes in the emergence and recent spread of the syphilis agent, Treponema pallidum
Abstract The incidence of syphilis has risen worldwide in the last decade in spite of being an easily treated infection. The causative agent of this sexually transmitted disease is the bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum (TPA), very closely related to subsp. pertenue (TPE) and endemicum (TEN), responsible for the human treponematoses yaws and bejel, respectively. Although much focus has been placed on the question of the spatial and temporary origins of TPA, the processes driving the evolution and epidemiological spread of TPA since its divergence from TPE and TEN are not well understood. Here, we investigate the effects of recombination and selection as forces of genetic diver…