The genome of Treponema pallidum: new light on the agent of syphilis

Treponema pallidum subsp, pallidum, the causative agent of the sexually tra nsmitted disease syphilis, is a fastidious, microaerophilic obligate parasi te of humans. This bacterium is one of the few prominent infectious agents that has not been cultured continuously in vitro and consequently relativel y little is known about its virulence mechanisms at the molecular level. T. pallidum therefore represented an attractive candidate for genomic sequenc ing. The complete genome sequence of T. pallidum has now been completed and comprises 1 138 006 base pairs containing 1041 predicted protein coding se quences. An important goal of this project is to identify possible virulenc e factors, analysis of the genome indicates a number of potential virulence factors including a family of 12 proteins related to the Msp protein of Tr eponema denticola. a number of putative hemolysins, as well as several othe r classes of proteins of interest. The results of this analysis are reviewe d in this article and indicate the value of whole genome sequences for rapi dly advancing knowledge of infectious agents. (C) 1998 Federation of Europe an Microbiological Societies. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.