0000000000539090
AUTHOR
Philipp P. Bosshard
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…
Origin of modern syphilis and emergence of a contemporary pandemic cluster
AbstractSyphilis swept across the world in the 16th century as one of most prominent documented pandemics and is re-emerging worldwide despite the availability of effective antibiotics. Little is known about the genetic patterns in current infections or the evolutionary origins of the disease due to the non-cultivable and clonal nature of the causative bacterium Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum. In this study, we used DNA capture and next generation sequencing to obtain whole genome data from syphilis patient specimens and from treponemes propagated in laboratory settings. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that the syphilis strains examined here share a common ancestor after the 15th century…
Origin of modern syphilis and emergence of a pandemic Treponema pallidum cluster
The abrupt onslaught of the syphilis pandemic that started in the late fifteenth century established this devastating infectious disease as one of the most feared in human history1 . Surprisingly, despite the availability of effective antibiotic treatment since the mid-twentieth century, this bacterial infection, which is caused by Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum (TPA), has been re-emerging globally in the last few decades with an estimated 10.6 million cases in 2008 (ref. 2). Although resistance to penicillin has not yet been identified, an increasing number of strains fail to respond to the secondline antibiotic azithromycin3. Little is known about the genetic patterns in current infec…
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…