Treponema

Pathogenicity across species

Only some species of Treponema are pathogenic in humans. Treponema carateum is the cause of pinta which occurs primarily in Central and South America. Treponema paraluiscuniculi is associated with syphilis in rabbits but is not infectious in humans. Treponema succinifaciens has been found in the gut microbiome of traditional rural human populations. 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).

Phylogeny

The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN) and National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).

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.

References

References

2. (January 2002). "The endemic treponematoses". Microbes Infect..
3. (August 2008). "The sequence of the acidic repeat protein (arp) gene differentiates venereal from nonvenereal ''Treponema pallidum ''subspecies, and the gene has evolved under strong positive selection in the subspecies that causes syphilis". FEMS Immunol. Med. Microbiol..
4. (January 2019). "Treponema species enrich the gut microbiota of traditional rural populations but are absent from urban individuals". New Microbes and New Infections.
5. (January 2001). "Biology of Treponema pallidum: correlation of functional activities with genome sequence data". Journal of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology.
6. {{lpsn3. genus/treponema. Treponema
7. "The LTP".
8. "LTP_all tree in newick format".
9. "LTP_10_2024 Release Notes".
10. "GTDB release 10-RS226".
11. "bac120_r226.sp_label".
12. "Taxon History".
13. (January 1991). "Reclassification of Treponema hyodysenteriae and ''Treponema innocens'' in a new genus, Serpula gen. nov., as Serpula hyodysenteriae comb. nov. and Serpula innocens comb. nov". Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol..