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The Genus Treponema

  • Reference work entry
The Prokaryotes

Introduction and Habitats

The genus Treponema (phylum Spirochaetes, order Spirochetales, family Spirochaetaceae) is composed of both pathogenic and nonpathogenic species indigenous to humans and animals. They are helical, tightly coiled, motile bacteria, ranging from 5–20 µm in length and 0.1–0.4 µm in diameter, and are best observed by dark-field microscopy (Fig. 1). The organisms stain poorly with the usual aniline dyes; however, those that are capable of aniline-dye uptake are Gram-negative. Staining can best be accomplished by the use of silver impregnation or immunofluorescent methods. The sequence of the genome of Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum, the type species of the genus, was determined in 1998 (Fraser et al., 1998), and the [{http://www.tigr.org} sequence of the Treponema denticola] genome is nearly completed. Information based on these genome sequences has been incorporated into sections of this chapter.

Fig. 1.
figure 1

Appearance of Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidumNichols...

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Authors
  1. Steven J. Norris
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  2. Bruce J. Paster
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  3. Annette Moter
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  4. Ulf B. Göbel
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota, Box 196, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0312, USA

    Martin Dworkin Professor Dr. (Editor-in-Chief) (Editor-in-Chief)

  2. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University Medical School, 299 Campus Drive, Fairchild, D039, Stanford, CA, 94305-5124, USA

    Stanley Falkow

  3. Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Tel Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, 69978, Israel

    Eugene Rosenberg

  4. Department of Microbiology, Technical University Munich, 80290, Munich, Germany

    Karl-Heinz Schleifer

  5. DSMZ- German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH, Mascheroder Weg 1b, 38124, Braunschweig, Germany

    Erko Stackebrandt

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© 2006 Springer-Verlag

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Norris, S.J., Paster, B.J., Moter, A., Göbel, U.B. (2006). The Genus Treponema . In: Dworkin, M., Falkow, S., Rosenberg, E., Schleifer, KH., Stackebrandt, E. (eds) The Prokaryotes. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30747-8_8

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