Treponema
Genus of bacteria
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Treponema is a genus of spiral-shaped bacteria. The major treponeme species of human pathogens is Treponema pallidum, whose subspecies are responsible for diseases such as syphilis, bejel, and yaws.
| Treponema | |
|---|---|
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| Treponema pallidum spirochaetes | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Bacteria |
| Kingdom: | Pseudomonadati |
| Phylum: | Spirochaetota |
| Class: | Spirochaetia |
| Order: | Spirochaetales |
| Family: | Treponemataceae |
| Genus: | Treponema Schaudinn 1905 emend. Abt, Göker & Klenk 2013 |
| Type species | |
| Treponema pallidum (Schaudinn & Hoffmann 1905) Schaudinn 1905 | |
| Species[1] | |
| Synonyms | |
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Pathogenicity across species
Only some species of Treponema are pathogenic in humans. Treponema carateum is the cause of pinta[2] which occurs primarily in Central and South America. Treponema paraluiscuniculi is associated with syphilis in rabbits[3] but is not infectious in humans. Treponema succinifaciens has been found in the gut microbiome of traditional rural human populations.[4] Treponema pallidum subspecies endemicum and T. p. ssp pertenue are only moderately invasive in humans (as opposed to T. pallidum pallidum which is highly invasive).[5]
Phylogeny
The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN)[6] and National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).[1]
| 16S rRNA based LTP_10_2024[7][8][9] | 120 marker proteins based GTDB 10-RS226[10][11][12] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Unassigned Treponema species:
- "Ca. T. caballi" Gilroy et al. 2022
- T. calligyrum Noguchi 1913
- T. carateum Brumpt 1939 (pinta-causing Treponema)
- "Ca. T. intracellulare" Ohkuma et al. 2015 corrig. Oren et al. 2020
- "T. legeri" (Duboscq & Lebailly 1912) Zuelzer 1925
- "T. macrodentium" Noguchi 1912
- T. paraluisleporis Lumeij et al. 1994
- T. pertenue (Castellani 1905) Castellani & Chalmers 1910
- "T. plautii" Fong et al. 2025
- T. refringens (Schaudinn and Hofmann 1905) Castellani and Chalmers
- "T. scoliodonta" (Hoffmann 1920) Noguchi 1928 ex Smibert 1984
- "T. sinense" Huo et al. 2017 ex Fong et al. 2025
- "T. stenella" Balik et al. 2023
- "Ca. T. suis" Molbak et al. 2006 non Kujumgiev & Spassova 1967
- "Ca. T. teratonymphae" Noda et al. 2018
- "T. trimerodonta" (Hoffmann 1920) Prévot 1940
The species Treponema hyodysenteriae and Treponema innocens have been reclassified into Brachyspira hyodysenteriae and Brachyspira innocens.[13]
