Spirochaetes

Scanning electron micrograph of Treponema pallidum cells, copyright Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Belongs within: Life.

The Spirochaetes are a distinctive group of helically coiled, motile bacteria. Some species are notorious pathogens such as Treponema pallidum (causing syphilis) and Borrelia burgdorferi (causing Lyme disease). Pathogenic species of Borrelia are commonly transmitted by bites from ticks.

Characters (from Garrity & Holt 2001a): Gram-negative, helically shaped, highly flexible cells. Motility by periplasmic flagella. Chemoorganotrophic. Anaerobic, microaerophilic, facultatively anaerobic, or aerobic. Free-living or associated with host animals.

<==Spirochaetes [Endoflagellata, Spirochaetae, Spirochaetales]
    |  i. s.: Spirosymplokos deltaeiberi MS98
    |--Leptospiraceae [Leptospirae] GH01a
    |    |--Leptonema illini GH01a, PHK96
    |    `--Leptospira WK13
    |         |--L. biflexa WK13
    |         |--L. interrogans PHK96
    |         `--L. wolbachii HP98
    `--+--Serpulinaceae GH01a
       |    |--Serpulina GH01a
       |    `--Brachyspira murdochii WK13
       `--Spirochaetaceae [Euspirochaetae, Pillotaceae] GH01a
            |  i. s.: Cristispira GH01a
            |         Brevinema GH01a
            |         Clevelandina GH01a
            |         Diplocalyx GH01a
            |         Pillotina GH01a
            |--Serpula hyodysenteriae PHK96
            `--+--Spirochaeta PHK96
               |    |--S. aurantia GH01b
               |    |--S. halophila GH01b
               |    |--S. litoralis PHK96
               |    |--S. plicatilis MS98
               |    |--S. stenostrepta PHK96
               |    |--S. thermophila SV13
               |    `--S. zulzerae WR03
               |--Treponema WK13
               |    |--T. bryantii CM92
               |    |--T. caroteum E83
               |    |--T. denticola PHK96
               |    |--T. maltophilum WR03
               |    |--T. oralis PHK96
               |    |--T. pallidum HP98
               |    |--T. parvum Wyss et al. 2001 JC08
               |    |--T. pertenue E83
               |    |--T. saccharophilum PHK96
               |    `--T. zuelzerae PHK96
               `--Borrelia PHK96
                    |--B. afzelii PHK96
                    |--B. andersonii BG-P02
                    |--B. anserina E-KOS07
                    |--B. bissettii BG-P02
                    |--B. burgdorferi PHK96
                    |--B. duttonii PHK96
                    |--B. garinii PHK96
                    |--B. hermsii O92
                    |--B. japonica BG-P02
                    |--B. lusitaniae GK01
                    |--B. persica K91
                    |--B. recurrentis GE05
                    `--B. valaisiana GK01

Nomen invalidum: Borrelia sinica Masuzawa et al. 2001 JC08

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[BG-P02] Barral, M., A. L. García-Pérez, R. A. Juste, A. Hurtado, R. Escudero, R. E. Sellek & P. Anda. 2002. Distribution of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in Ixodes ricinus (Acari: Ixodidae) ticks from the Basque Country, Spain. Journal of Medical Entomology 39 (1): 177–184.

[CM92] Coughlan, M. P., & F. Mayer. 1992. The cellulose-decomposing bacteria and their enzyme systems. In: Balows, A., H. G. Trüper, M. Dworkin, W. Harder & K.-H. Schleifer (eds) The Prokaryotes: A handbook on the biology of bacteria: Ecophysiology, isolation, identification, applications 2^nd ed. vol. 1 pp. 460–516. Springer-Verlag: New York.

[E-KOS07] El-Kammah, K. M., L. M. I. Oyoun & S. A. Shafy. 2007. The role of Argas persicus (Acari: Ixodoidea) in the maintenance and transmission of Haemoproteus columbae and Borrelia anserina to poultry. In: Morales-Malacara, J. B., V. M. Behan-Pelletier, E. Ueckermann, T. M. Pérez, E. G. Estrada-Venegas & M. Badii (eds) Acarology XI: Proceedings of the International Congress pp. 215–221. Instituto de Biología and Faculdad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Sociedad Latinoamericana de Acarología: México.

[E83] Ewald, P. W. 1983. Host-parasite relations, vectors, and the evolution of disease severity. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 14: 465–485.

[GH01a] Garrity, G. M., & J. G. Holt. 2001a. The road map to the Manual. In: Boone, D. R., R. W. Castenholz & G. M. Garrity (eds) Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology 2^nd ed. vol. 1. The Archaea and the Deeply Branching and Phototrophic Bacteria pp. 119–166. Springer.

[GH01b] Garrity, G. M., & J. G. Holt. 2001b. Phylum BIX. Deferribacteres phy. nov. In: Boone, D. R., R. W. Castenholz & G. M. Garrity (eds) Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology 2^nd ed. vol. 1. The Archaea and the Deeply Branching and Phototrophic Bacteria pp. 465–471. Springer.

[GK01] Gray, J. S., & O. Kahl. 2001. Ticks as vectors of zoonotic pathogens in Europe. In: Halliday, R. B., D. E. Walter, H. C. Proctor, R. A. Norton & M. J. Colloff (eds) Acarology: Proceedings of the 10^th International Congress pp. 547–551. CSIRO Publishing: Melbourne.

[GE05] Grimaldi, D., & M. S. Engel. 2005. Evolution of the Insects. Cambridge University Press: New York.

[HP98] Hugenholtz, P., C. Pitulle, K. L. Hershberger & N. R. Pace. 1998. Novel division level bacterial diversity in a Yellowstone hot spring. Journal of Bacteriology 180 (2): 366–376.

[JC08] Judicial Commission of the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes. 2008. Status of strains that contravene Rules 27 (3) and 30 of the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria. Opinion 81. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 58: 1755–1763.

[K91] Kryuchechnikov, V. N. 1991. Protective responses of Ixodoidea hemocytes. In: Dusbábek, F., & V. Bukva (eds) Modern Acarology: Proceedings of the VIII International Congress of Acarology, held in České Budĕjovice, Czechoslovakia, 6–11 August 1990 vol. 1 pp. 331–334. SPB Academic Publishing: The Hague.

[MS98] Margulis, L., & K. V. Schwartz. 1998. Five Kingdoms: An Illustrated Guide to the Phyla of Life on Earth 3^rd ed. W. H. Freeman and Company: New York.

[O92] Orndorff, P. E. 1992. Bacterial virulence. In: Balows, A., H. G. Trüper, M. Dworkin, W. Harder & K.-H. Schleifer (eds) The Prokaryotes: A handbook on the biology of bacteria: Ecophysiology, isolation, identification, applications 2^nd ed. vol. 1 pp. 640–658. Springer-Verlag: New York.

[PHK96] Prescott, L. M., J. P. Harley & D. A. Klein. 1996. Microbiology 3^rd ed. Wm. C. Brown Publishers: Dubuque (Iowa).

[SV13] Schirrmeister, B. E., J. M. de Vos, A. Antonelli & H. C. Bagheri. 2013. Evolution of multicellularity coincided with increased diversification of cyanobacteria and the Great Oxidation Event. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 110 (5): 1791–1796.

[WR03] Wenzel, M., R. Radek, G. Brugerolle & H. König. 2003. Identification of the ectosymbiotic bacteria of Mixotricha paradoxa involved in movement symbiosis. European Journal of Protistology 39 (1): 11–23.

[WK13] Williams, K. P., & D. P. Kelly. 2013. Proposal for a new class within the phylum Proteobacteria, Acidithiobacillia classis nov., with the type order Acidithiobacillales, and emended description of the class Gammaproteobacteria. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 63 (8): 2901–2906.

Last updated: 18 January 2019.