The hare syphilis agent is related to, but distinct from, the treponeme causing rabbit syphilis

• Published in: PLOS ONE
• Main Authors: Pospíšilová, Petra, Čejková, Darina, Buršíková, Pavla, Fedrová, Pavla, Mikalová, Lenka, Najt, David, Tom, Nikola, Hisgen, Linda, Lueert, Simone, Lumeij, Johannes T., Ågren, Erik O., Knauf, Sascha, Šmajs, David
• Other Authors: Abo-Al-Ela, Haitham, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, National Institute of Virology and Bacteriology project, MEYS CR
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2024
• Subjects: Lepus timidus; mountain hare
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0307196; https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0307196

The treponemes infecting lagomorphs include Treponema paraluisleporidarum ecovar Cuniculus ( TP eC) and ecovar Lepus ( TP eL), infecting rabbits and hares, respectively. In this study, we described the first complete genome sequence of TP eL, isolate V3603-13, from an infected mountain hare ( Lepus timidus ) in Sweden. In addition, we determined 99.0% of the genome sequence of isolate V246-08 (also from an infected mountain hare, Sweden) and 31.7% of the genome sequence of isolate Z27 A77/78 (from a European hare, Lepus europeaus , The Netherlands). The TP eL V3603-13 genome had considerable gene synteny with the TP eC Cuniculi A genome and with the human pathogen T . pallidum , which causes syphilis (ssp. pallidum , TPA ), yaws (ssp. pertenue , TPE ) and endemic syphilis (ssp. endemicum , TEN ). Compared to the TP eC Cuniculi A genome, TP eL V3603-13 contained four insertions and 11 deletions longer than three nucleotides (ranging between 6 and2,932 nts). In addition, there were 25 additional indels, from one to three nucleotides long, altogether spanning 36 nts. The number of single nucleotide variants (SNVs) between TP eC Cuniculi A and TP eL V3603-13 were represented by 309 nucleotide differences. Major proteome coding differences between TP eL and TP eC were found in the tpr gene family, and (predicted) genes coding for outer membrane proteins, suggesting that these components are essential for host adaptation in lagomorph syphilis. The phylogeny revealed that the TP eL sample from the European brown hare was more distantly related to TP eC Cuniculi A than V3603-13 and V246-08.