ArticleJournal of bacteriology2009
Cryo-electron tomography elucidates the molecular architecture of Treponema pallidum, the syphilis spirochete.
Article in Journal of bacteriology, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 70 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
70 citing papers in PubMed, 111 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Expanded Functional Characterization and Optimization of Protein Expression in Treponema denticola Shuttle Plasmids.Molecular oral microbiology · 2026Article
- In Situ Structural Analysis of Leptospira spp. by Electron Cryotomography.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2026Article
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- CDC Laboratory Recommendations for Syphilis Testing, United States, 2024.MMWR. Recommendations and reports : Morbidity and mortality weekly report. Recommendations and reports · 2024Article
- Proteomic analysis of theFrontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- Enhanced transformation efficiency in Treponema denticola enabled by SyngenicDNA-based plasmids lacking restriction-modification target motifs.Molecular oral microbiology · 2023Article
- Deep proteome coverage advances knowledge of Treponema pallidum protein expression profiles during infection.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- A large screen identifies beta-lactam antibiotics which can be repurposed to target the syphilis agent.npj antimicrobials and resistance · 2023Article
- Syphilis vaccine: challenges, controversies and opportunities.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Review
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- Structural Modeling of the Treponema pallidum Outer Membrane Protein Repertoire: a Road Map for Deconvolution of Syphilis Pathogenesis and Development of a Syphilis Vaccine.Journal of bacteriology · 2021Article
10 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Cryo-electron tomography (CET) was used to examine the native cellular organization of Treponema pallidum, the syphilis spirochete. T. pallidum cells appeared to form flat waves, did not contain an outer coat and, except for bulges over the basal bodies and widening in the vicinity of flagellar filaments, displayed a uniform periplasmic space. Although the outer membrane (OM) generally was smooth in contour, OM extrusions and blebs frequently were observed, highlighting the structure's fluidity and lack of attachment to underlying periplasmic constituents. Cytoplasmic filaments converged from their attachment points opposite the basal bodies to form arrays that ran roughly parallel to the flagellar filaments along the inner surface of the cytoplasmic membrane (CM). Motile treponemes stably attached to rabbit epithelial cells predominantly via their tips. CET revealed that T. pallidum cell ends have a complex morphology and assume at least four distinct morphotypes. Images of dividing treponemes and organisms shedding cell envelope-derived blebs provided evidence for the spirochete's complex membrane biology. In the regions without flagellar filaments, peptidoglycan (PG) was visualized as a thin layer that divided the periplasmic space into zones of higher and lower electron densities adjacent to the CM and OM, respectively. Flagellar filaments were observed overlying the PG layer, while image modeling placed the PG-basal body contact site in the vicinity of the stator-P-collar junction. Bioinformatics and homology modeling indicated that the MotB proteins of T. pallidum, Treponema denticola, and Borrelia burgdorferi have membrane topologies and PG binding sites highly similar to those of their well-characterized Escherichia coli and Helicobacter pylori orthologs. Collectively, our results help to clarify fundamental differences in cell envelope ultrastructure between spirochetes and gram-negative bacteria. They also confirm that PG stabilizes the flagellar motor and enable us to propose that in most spirochetes motility results from rotation of the flagellar filaments against the PG.
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