Treponema pallidum genome sequencing from six continents reveals variability in vaccine candidate genes and dominance of Nichols clade strains in Madagascar.

ABSTRACT: In spite of its immutable susceptibility to penicillin, Treponema pallidum (T. pallidum) subsp. pallidum continues to cause millions of cases of syphilis each year worldwide, resulting in significant morbidity and mortality and underscoring the urgency of developing an effective vaccine to curtail the spread of the infection. Several technical challenges, including absence of an in vitro culture system until very recently, have hampered efforts to catalog the diversity of strains collected worldwide. Here, we provide near-complete genomes from 196 T. pallidum strains-including 191 T. pallidum subsp. pallidum-sequenced directly from patient samples collected from 8 countries and 6 continents. Maximum likelihood phylogeny revealed that samples from most sites were predominantly SS14 clade. H

SUBMITTER: Lieberman NAP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8735616 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature