ArticleMolecular biology and evolution2022
Evolutionary Processes in the Emergence and Recent Spread of the Syphilis Agent, Treponema pallidum.
Article in Molecular biology and evolution, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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18 citing papers in PubMed, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Resistance to ceftriaxone and penicillin G among contemporary syphilis strains confirmed by natural in vitro mutagenesis.Communications medicine · 2025Article
- Whole-genome sequencing reveals evidence for inter-species transmission of the yaws bacterium among nonhuman primates in Tanzania.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2025Article
- Establishment of the Nichols strain as the type strain ofInternational journal of systematic and evolutionary microbiology · 2025Review
- PathoGD: an integrative genomics approach to primer and guide RNA design for CRISPR-based diagnostics.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Insights into Treponema pallidum genomics from modern and ancient genomes using a novel mapping strategy.BMC biology · 2025Article
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- Low genetic diversity of Treponema pallidum ssp. pertenue (TPE) isolated from patients' ulcers in Namatanai District of Papua New Guinea: Local human population is infected by three TPE genotypes.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2024Article
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- The hare syphilis agent is related to, but distinct from, the treponeme causing rabbit syphilis.PloS one · 2024Article
- The Effect of Dietary Supplementation with Zinc Amino Acids on Immunity, Antioxidant Capacity, and Gut Microbiota Composition in Calves.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
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- Comparative genomics and evolutionary analysis ofMicrobial genomics · 2022Article
- Notes on syphilis vaccine development.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Review
- Evidente-a visual analytics tool for data enrichment in SNP-based phylogenetic trees.Bioinformatics advances · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 5 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
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 diversity and differentiation acting during the evolution of T. pallidum subspecies. Using a custom-tailored procedure, named phylogenetic incongruence method, with 75 complete genome sequences, we found strong evidence for recombination among the T. pallidum subspecies, involving 12 genes and 21 events. In most cases, only one recombination event per gene was detected and all but one event corresponded to intersubspecies transfers, from TPE/TEN to TPA. We found a clear signal of natural selection acting on the recombinant genes, which is more intense in their recombinant regions. The phylogenetic location of the recombination events detected and the functional role of the genes with signals of positive selection suggest that these evolutionary processes had a key role in the evolution and recent expansion of the syphilis bacteria and significant implications for the selection of vaccine candidates and the design of a broadly protective syphilis vaccine.
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