Treponema

Treponema
	Treponema pallidum spirochaetes
Scientific classification
Domain:	Bacteria
Kingdom:	Pseudomonadati
Phylum:	Spirochaetota
Class:	Spirochaetia
Order:	Spirochaetales
Family:	Treponemataceae
Genus:	Treponema; Schaudinn 1905 emend. Abt, Göker & Klenk 2013
Type species
	Treponema pallidum; (Schaudinn & Hoffmann 1905) Schaudinn 1905
Species
	See text
Synonyms
	"Spironema" Vuillemin 1905 non Klebs 1892 non Leger & Hesse 1922 non Rafinesque 1838 non Hochst. 1842 non Lindley 1840 non Meek 1864; "Microspironema" Stiles & Pfender 1905;

Treponema is a genus of spiral-shaped bacteria. The major treponeme species of human pathogens is Treponema pallidum, whose subspecies are responsible for diseases such as syphilis, bejel, and yaws.

Pathogenicity across species

Only some species of Treponema are pathogenic in humans. Treponema carateum is the cause of pinta^[2] which occurs primarily in Central and South America. Treponema paraluiscuniculi is associated with syphilis in rabbits^[3] but is not infectious in humans. Treponema succinifaciens has been found in the gut microbiome of traditional rural human populations.^[4] Treponema pallidum subspecies endemicum and T. p. ssp pertenue are only moderately invasive in humans (as opposed to T. pallidum pallidum which is highly invasive).^[5]

Phylogeny

Nomenclature follows the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN),^[6] with the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) taxonomy database used as an additional reference.^[1]

The trees below compare a 16S rRNA gene phylogeny from LTP_10_2024 with a genome-based phylogeny from GTDB release R11-RS232.

16S rRNA based LTP_10_2024^[7]^[8]^[9]

120 marker proteins based GTDB R11-RS232^[10]^[11]

Treponemataceae

	Gracilinema caldarium (Pohlschröder, Leschine & Canale-Parola 1995) Brune et al. 2022

	Zuelzera stenostrepta (Zuelzer 1912) Brune et al. 2022

Breznakiella homolactica Song et al. 2022

Treponema primitia Graber, Leadbetter & Breznak 2004

	Helmutkoenigia isoptericolens (Dröge et al. 2008) Brune et al. 2022

	Leadbettera azotonutricia (Graber et al. 2004) Brune et al. 2022

	Brucepastera parasyntrophica Song et al. 2023

	Teretinema zuelzerae (Canale-Parola 1980) Song et al. 2023

Treponema

T. medium Umemoto et al. 1997

T. phagedenis (Noguchi 1912) Brumpt 1922 ex Kuhnert et al. 2020

T. pedis Evans et al. 2009

	T. denticola (Flügge 1886) Brumpt 1925 ex Chan et al. 1993

	T. putidum Wyss et al. 2004

s.s.

Treponema

T. brennaborense Schrank et al. 1999

	T. lecithinolyticum Wyss et al. 1999

	T. maltophilum Wyss et al. 1996

	T. ruminis Newbrook et al. 2017

	T. saccharophilum Paster & Canale-Parola 1986

T. rectale Staton et al. 2017

	T. peruense Belkhou et al. 2021

	T. succinifaciens Cwyk and Canale-Parola 1981

	T. berlinense Nordhoff et al. 2005

	T. pectinovorum Smibert & Burmeister 1983

	T. bryantii Stanton & Canale-Parola 1980

	T. porcinum Nordhoff et al. 2005

T. amylovorum Wyss et al. 1997

T. parvum Wyss et al. 2001 non Dobell 1912

T. socranskii

T. s. paredis Smibert, Johnson & Ranney 1984

	T. s. buccale Smibert, Johnson & Ranney 1984

	T. s. socranskii Smibert, Johnson & Ranney 1984

species‑group 2

Breznakiellaceae

Leadbettera azotonutricia

	Termitinema primitia

	Breznakiella homolactica

Gracilinema caldarium

Treponemataceae

Treponema_D

	T. bryantii_C

	T. bryantii_A

T. bryantii_B

T. bryantii_D

T. porcinum

	"Ca. T. merdequi"

	"Ca. T. scatequi"

	T. socranskii subsp. paredis

	T. socranskii subsp. buccale

T. socranskii subsp. socranskii

T. parvum

	"Ca. T. equi"

	T. succinifaciens

T. peruense

T. rectale

	T. ruminis

	"Ca. T. equifaecale"

	T. saccharophilum

	"T. zioleckii"

	T. berlinense

	T. pectinovorum

Treponema_F

	"Ca. T. excrementipullorum"

	T. brennaborense

Treponema_G

"Ca. T. faecavium"

Treponema_C

	T. maltophilum

	T. lecithinolyticum

Treponema_I

"Ca. T. caballi"

Treponema_B

	T. denticola

	T. putidum

T. pedis

Treponema

	"T. vincentii"

	T. medium

	T. pallidum

	T. phagedenis

s.s.

	Teretinema zuelzerae

	Brucepastera parasyntrophica

"Ca. Avitreponema avistercoris"

"Ca. Gallitreponema excrementavium"

}}

The GTDB tree shows named species clusters; accession-based placeholder species are omitted. Letter suffixes are GTDB cluster identifiers.

Unassigned Treponema species:

T. calligyrum Noguchi 1913
T. carateum Brumpt 1939 (pinta-causing Treponema)
"Ca. T. intracellulare" Ohkuma et al. 2015 corrig. Oren et al. 2020
"T. legeri" (Duboscq & Lebailly 1912) Zuelzer 1925
"T. macrodentium" Noguchi 1912
T. paraluisleporis Lumeij et al. 1994
T. pertenue (Castellani 1905) Castellani & Chalmers 1910
"T. plautii" Fong et al. 2025
T. refringens (Schaudinn and Hofmann 1905) Castellani and Chalmers
"T. scoliodontum" (Hoffmann 1920) Noguchi 1928 ex Smibert 1984
"T. sinense" Huo et al. 2017 ex Fong et al. 2025
"Ca. T. stenella" Balik et al. 2023
"Ca. T. suis" Molbak et al. 2006 non Kujumgiev & Spassova 1967
"Ca. T. teratonymphae" Noda et al. 2018
"T. trimerodonta" (Hoffmann 1920) Prévot 1940

References

1 2 Schoch CL; et al. "Treponema". National Center for Biotechnology Information taxonomy database. Retrieved 27 July 2026.
↑ Antal GM, Lukehart SA, Meheus AZ (January 2002). "The endemic treponematoses". Microbes Infect. 4 (1): 83–94. doi:10.1016/S1286-4579(01)01513-1. PMID 11825779.
↑ Harper KN, Liu H, Ocampo PS, et al. (August 2008). "The sequence of the acidic repeat protein (arp) gene differentiates venereal from nonvenereal Treponema pallidum subspecies, and the gene has evolved under strong positive selection in the subspecies that causes syphilis". FEMS Immunol. Med. Microbiol. 53 (3): 322–32. doi:10.1111/j.1574-695X.2008.00427.x. PMID 18554302.
↑ Angelakis E, Bachar D, Yasir M, Musso D, Djossou F, Gaborit B, et al. (January 2019). "Treponema species enrich the gut microbiota of traditional rural populations but are absent from urban individuals". New Microbes and New Infections. 27: 14–21. doi:10.1016/j.nmni.2018.10.009. PMC 6276622. PMID 30555706. (This paper currently has an expression of concern, see doi:10.1016/j.nmni.2024.101401, PMID 38799921, Retraction Watch. If this is an intentional citation to a such a paper, please replace {{expression of concern|...}} with {{expression of concern|...|intentional=yes}}.)
↑ Norris, S. J.; Cox, D. L.; Weinstock, G. M. (January 2001). "Biology of Treponema pallidum: correlation of functional activities with genome sequence data". Journal of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology. 3 (1): 37–62. ISSN 1464-1801. PMID 11200228.
↑ Treponema in LPSN; Freese, H. M.; Meier-Kolthoff, J. P.; Sardà Carbasse, J.; Afolayan, A. O.; Göker, M. (29 October 2025). "TYGS and LPSN in 2025: a Global Core Biodata Resource for genome-based classification and nomenclature of prokaryotes within DSMZ Digital Diversity". Nucleic Acids Research. 53: D1–D12. doi:10.1093/nar/gkaf1110.
↑ "The LTP and LTPlus". Retrieved 27 July 2026.
↑ "LTP_all tree in Newick format". Retrieved 10 December 2024.
↑ "LTP_10_2024 release notes" (PDF). Retrieved 10 December 2024.
↑ "GTDB release R11-RS232". Genome Taxonomy Database. Retrieved 27 July 2026.
↑ "bac120_r232.sp_labels.tree". Genome Taxonomy Database. Retrieved 27 July 2026.

[NCBI-1] 1 2 Schoch CL; et al. "Treponema". National Center for Biotechnology Information taxonomy database. Retrieved 27 July 2026.

[pmid11825779-2] Antal GM, Lukehart SA, Meheus AZ (January 2002). "The endemic treponematoses". Microbes Infect. 4 (1): 83–94. doi:10.1016/S1286-4579(01)01513-1. PMID 11825779.

[pmid18554302-3] Harper KN, Liu H, Ocampo PS, et al. (August 2008). "The sequence of the acidic repeat protein (arp) gene differentiates venereal from nonvenereal Treponema pallidum subspecies, and the gene has evolved under strong positive selection in the subspecies that causes syphilis". FEMS Immunol. Med. Microbiol. 53 (3): 322–32. doi:10.1111/j.1574-695X.2008.00427.x. PMID 18554302.

[pmid30555706-4] Angelakis E, Bachar D, Yasir M, Musso D, Djossou F, Gaborit B, et al. (January 2019). "Treponema species enrich the gut microbiota of traditional rural populations but are absent from urban individuals". New Microbes and New Infections. 27: 14–21. doi:10.1016/j.nmni.2018.10.009. PMC 6276622. PMID 30555706. (This paper currently has an expression of concern, see doi:10.1016/j.nmni.2024.101401, PMID 38799921, Retraction Watch. If this is an intentional citation to a such a paper, please replace {{expression of concern|...}} with {{expression of concern|...|intentional=yes}}.)

[5] Norris, S. J.; Cox, D. L.; Weinstock, G. M. (January 2001). "Biology of Treponema pallidum: correlation of functional activities with genome sequence data". Journal of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology. 3 (1): 37–62. ISSN 1464-1801. PMID 11200228.

[LPSN-6] Treponema in LPSN; Freese, H. M.; Meier-Kolthoff, J. P.; Sardà Carbasse, J.; Afolayan, A. O.; Göker, M. (29 October 2025). "TYGS and LPSN in 2025: a Global Core Biodata Resource for genome-based classification and nomenclature of prokaryotes within DSMZ Digital Diversity". Nucleic Acids Research. 53: D1–D12. doi:10.1093/nar/gkaf1110.

[LTP-2024-7] "The LTP and LTPlus". Retrieved 27 July 2026.

[LTP-2024-tree-8] "LTP_all tree in Newick format". Retrieved 10 December 2024.

[LTP-2024-notes-9] "LTP_10_2024 release notes" (PDF). Retrieved 10 December 2024.

[GTDB-R232-10] "GTDB release R11-RS232". Genome Taxonomy Database. Retrieved 27 July 2026.

[GTDB-R232-tree-11] "bac120_r232.sp_labels.tree". Genome Taxonomy Database. Retrieved 27 July 2026.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

This page was redesigned at the edge.

A page that knows where it met you.

Treponema

Pathogenicity across species

Phylogeny

See also

References