High prevalence and genetic diversity of Treponema paraluisleporidarum isolates in European lagomorphs
ABSTRACT The bacterium Treponema paraluisleporidarum causes syphilis in lagomorphs. In a set of 1,095 samples from four species—European brown hare, mountain hare, Corsican hare, and European rabbit—we tested for infection and genotyped the strains that infect wild lagomorphs. Samples originate from...
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2024
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crasmicro:10.1128/spectrum.01774-23 2024-09-09T19:52:27+00:00 High prevalence and genetic diversity of Treponema paraluisleporidarum isolates in European lagomorphs Knauf, Sascha Hisgen, Linda Ågren, Erik O. Barlow, Alexander M. Faehndrich, Marcus Voigt, Ulrich Fischer, Luisa Grillová, Linda Hallmaier-Wacker, Luisa K. Kik, Marja J. L. Klink, Jana C. Křenová, Jitka Lavazza, Antonio Lüert, Simone Nováková, Markéta Čejková, Darina Pacioni, Carlo Trogu, Tiziana Šmajs, David Roos, Christian Faucher, Sébastien P. Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Czech Science Foundation National Institute of Virology and Bacteriology 2024 http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.01774-23 https://journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1128/spectrum.01774-23 en eng American Society for Microbiology https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://journals.asm.org/non-commercial-tdm-license Microbiology Spectrum volume 12, issue 1 ISSN 2165-0497 journal-article 2024 crasmicro https://doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.01774-23 2024-08-19T04:05:59Z ABSTRACT The bacterium Treponema paraluisleporidarum causes syphilis in lagomorphs. In a set of 1,095 samples from four species—European brown hare, mountain hare, Corsican hare, and European rabbit—we tested for infection and genotyped the strains that infect wild lagomorphs. Samples originate from Sweden, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Italy. The phylogenetic analyses of two informative gene targets ( tp0488 and tp0548 ) showed high genetic diversity among the lagomorph-infecting treponemes. More specifically, we found a high number of nucleotide variants and various short repeat units in the tp0548 locus that have not been described for human syphilis and primate yaws causing Treponema pallidum . While the functional aspect of these short repeat units remains subject to ongoing investigations, it likely enables the pathogen to better survive in its lagomorph host. Our data did not support any geographic clustering, which is equally reflected in the host population genetics as shown by mitochondrial genome data corresponding to the sampled lagomorph populations. This is unexpected and in contrast with what has been shown for nonhuman primate infection with T. pallidum . In the future, the combination of multi-locus sequence typing and whole genome data from modern and ancient samples from a wide geographic range and multiple lagomorph species will contribute to a better understanding of the epidemiology and evolutionary path of lagomorph-infecting treponemes. In conclusion, our current study demonstrates widespread infection and a high genetic variation of the syphilis-causing pathogen in a higher number of positively PCR-tested European lagomorphs ( n = 302/1,095). IMPORTANCE Syphilis is an ancient disease of humans and lagomorphs caused by two distinct but genetically closely related bacteria (>98% sequence identity based on the whole genome) of the genus Treponema . While human syphilis is well studied, little is known about the disease in the lagomorph host. Yet, ... Article in Journal/Newspaper mountain hare ASM Journals (American Society for Microbiology) Hare Mountain ENVELOPE(-18.767,-18.767,76.767,76.767) Microbiology Spectrum 12 1 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
ASM Journals (American Society for Microbiology) |
op_collection_id |
crasmicro |
language |
English |
description |
ABSTRACT The bacterium Treponema paraluisleporidarum causes syphilis in lagomorphs. In a set of 1,095 samples from four species—European brown hare, mountain hare, Corsican hare, and European rabbit—we tested for infection and genotyped the strains that infect wild lagomorphs. Samples originate from Sweden, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Italy. The phylogenetic analyses of two informative gene targets ( tp0488 and tp0548 ) showed high genetic diversity among the lagomorph-infecting treponemes. More specifically, we found a high number of nucleotide variants and various short repeat units in the tp0548 locus that have not been described for human syphilis and primate yaws causing Treponema pallidum . While the functional aspect of these short repeat units remains subject to ongoing investigations, it likely enables the pathogen to better survive in its lagomorph host. Our data did not support any geographic clustering, which is equally reflected in the host population genetics as shown by mitochondrial genome data corresponding to the sampled lagomorph populations. This is unexpected and in contrast with what has been shown for nonhuman primate infection with T. pallidum . In the future, the combination of multi-locus sequence typing and whole genome data from modern and ancient samples from a wide geographic range and multiple lagomorph species will contribute to a better understanding of the epidemiology and evolutionary path of lagomorph-infecting treponemes. In conclusion, our current study demonstrates widespread infection and a high genetic variation of the syphilis-causing pathogen in a higher number of positively PCR-tested European lagomorphs ( n = 302/1,095). IMPORTANCE Syphilis is an ancient disease of humans and lagomorphs caused by two distinct but genetically closely related bacteria (>98% sequence identity based on the whole genome) of the genus Treponema . While human syphilis is well studied, little is known about the disease in the lagomorph host. Yet, ... |
author2 |
Faucher, Sébastien P. Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Czech Science Foundation National Institute of Virology and Bacteriology |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Knauf, Sascha Hisgen, Linda Ågren, Erik O. Barlow, Alexander M. Faehndrich, Marcus Voigt, Ulrich Fischer, Luisa Grillová, Linda Hallmaier-Wacker, Luisa K. Kik, Marja J. L. Klink, Jana C. Křenová, Jitka Lavazza, Antonio Lüert, Simone Nováková, Markéta Čejková, Darina Pacioni, Carlo Trogu, Tiziana Šmajs, David Roos, Christian |
spellingShingle |
Knauf, Sascha Hisgen, Linda Ågren, Erik O. Barlow, Alexander M. Faehndrich, Marcus Voigt, Ulrich Fischer, Luisa Grillová, Linda Hallmaier-Wacker, Luisa K. Kik, Marja J. L. Klink, Jana C. Křenová, Jitka Lavazza, Antonio Lüert, Simone Nováková, Markéta Čejková, Darina Pacioni, Carlo Trogu, Tiziana Šmajs, David Roos, Christian High prevalence and genetic diversity of Treponema paraluisleporidarum isolates in European lagomorphs |
author_facet |
Knauf, Sascha Hisgen, Linda Ågren, Erik O. Barlow, Alexander M. Faehndrich, Marcus Voigt, Ulrich Fischer, Luisa Grillová, Linda Hallmaier-Wacker, Luisa K. Kik, Marja J. L. Klink, Jana C. Křenová, Jitka Lavazza, Antonio Lüert, Simone Nováková, Markéta Čejková, Darina Pacioni, Carlo Trogu, Tiziana Šmajs, David Roos, Christian |
author_sort |
Knauf, Sascha |
title |
High prevalence and genetic diversity of Treponema paraluisleporidarum isolates in European lagomorphs |
title_short |
High prevalence and genetic diversity of Treponema paraluisleporidarum isolates in European lagomorphs |
title_full |
High prevalence and genetic diversity of Treponema paraluisleporidarum isolates in European lagomorphs |
title_fullStr |
High prevalence and genetic diversity of Treponema paraluisleporidarum isolates in European lagomorphs |
title_full_unstemmed |
High prevalence and genetic diversity of Treponema paraluisleporidarum isolates in European lagomorphs |
title_sort |
high prevalence and genetic diversity of treponema paraluisleporidarum isolates in european lagomorphs |
publisher |
American Society for Microbiology |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.01774-23 https://journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1128/spectrum.01774-23 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-18.767,-18.767,76.767,76.767) |
geographic |
Hare Mountain |
geographic_facet |
Hare Mountain |
genre |
mountain hare |
genre_facet |
mountain hare |
op_source |
Microbiology Spectrum volume 12, issue 1 ISSN 2165-0497 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://journals.asm.org/non-commercial-tdm-license |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.01774-23 |
container_title |
Microbiology Spectrum |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
1 |
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1809921775470903296 |