On the Origin of the Treponematoses: A Phylogenetic Approach

For 500 years, controversy has raged around the origin of T. pallidum subsp. pallidum, the bacterium responsible for syphilis. Did Christopher Columbus and his men introduce this pathogen into Renaissance Europe, after contracting it during their voyage to the New World? Or does syphilis have a much...

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Main Authors:	Harper, Kristin N., Ocampo, Paolo S., Steiner, Bret M., George, Robert W., Silverman, Michael S., Bolotin, Shelly, Pillay, Allan, Saunders, Nigel J., Armelagos, George J.
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Public Library of Science 2008
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2217670/

id	pubmed-2217670
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-22176702008-01-31 On the Origin of the Treponematoses: A Phylogenetic Approach Harper, Kristin N. Ocampo, Paolo S. Steiner, Bret M. George, Robert W. Silverman, Michael S. Bolotin, Shelly Pillay, Allan Saunders, Nigel J. Armelagos, George J. Research Article For 500 years, controversy has raged around the origin of T. pallidum subsp. pallidum, the bacterium responsible for syphilis. Did Christopher Columbus and his men introduce this pathogen into Renaissance Europe, after contracting it during their voyage to the New World? Or does syphilis have a much older history in the Old World? This paper represents the first attempt to use a phylogenetic approach to solve this question. In addition, it clarifies the evolutionary relationships between the pathogen that causes syphilis and the other T. pallidum subspecies, which cause the neglected tropical diseases yaws and endemic syphilis. Using a collection of pathogenic Treponema strains that is unprecedented in size, we show that yaws appears to be an ancient infection in humans while venereal syphilis arose relatively recently in human history. In addition, the closest relatives of syphilis-causing strains identified in this study were found in South America, providing support for the Columbian theory of syphilis's origin. Public Library of Science 2008-01-15 /pmc/articles/PMC2217670/ /pubmed/18235852 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0000148 Text en This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Public Domain declaration which stipulates that, once placed in the public domain, this work may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Public Domain declaration, which stipulates that, once placed in the public domain, this work may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Harper, Kristin N. Ocampo, Paolo S. Steiner, Bret M. George, Robert W. Silverman, Michael S. Bolotin, Shelly Pillay, Allan Saunders, Nigel J. Armelagos, George J.
spellingShingle	Harper, Kristin N. Ocampo, Paolo S. Steiner, Bret M. George, Robert W. Silverman, Michael S. Bolotin, Shelly Pillay, Allan Saunders, Nigel J. Armelagos, George J. On the Origin of the Treponematoses: A Phylogenetic Approach
author_facet	Harper, Kristin N. Ocampo, Paolo S. Steiner, Bret M. George, Robert W. Silverman, Michael S. Bolotin, Shelly Pillay, Allan Saunders, Nigel J. Armelagos, George J.
author_sort	Harper, Kristin N.
title	On the Origin of the Treponematoses: A Phylogenetic Approach
title_short	On the Origin of the Treponematoses: A Phylogenetic Approach
title_full	On the Origin of the Treponematoses: A Phylogenetic Approach
title_fullStr	On the Origin of the Treponematoses: A Phylogenetic Approach
title_full_unstemmed	On the Origin of the Treponematoses: A Phylogenetic Approach
title_sort	on the origin of the treponematoses: a phylogenetic approach
description	For 500 years, controversy has raged around the origin of T. pallidum subsp. pallidum, the bacterium responsible for syphilis. Did Christopher Columbus and his men introduce this pathogen into Renaissance Europe, after contracting it during their voyage to the New World? Or does syphilis have a much older history in the Old World? This paper represents the first attempt to use a phylogenetic approach to solve this question. In addition, it clarifies the evolutionary relationships between the pathogen that causes syphilis and the other T. pallidum subspecies, which cause the neglected tropical diseases yaws and endemic syphilis. Using a collection of pathogenic Treponema strains that is unprecedented in size, we show that yaws appears to be an ancient infection in humans while venereal syphilis arose relatively recently in human history. In addition, the closest relatives of syphilis-causing strains identified in this study were found in South America, providing support for the Columbian theory of syphilis's origin.
publisher	Public Library of Science
publishDate	2008
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2217670/
_version_	1611435757454491648

On the Origin of the Treponematoses: A Phylogenetic Approach

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