A total of 54 clinical samples, including genital lesion swabs, whole blood and cerebrospinal fluid from patients diagnosed with syphilis were collected in 2006 and in 2013 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Treponemal DNA was detected in 43 of the analyzed samples (79.6%) and further analyzed using Sequencing-based molecular typing (SBMT) and Enhanced CDC-typing (ECDCT). By SBMT, 10 different Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum (TPA) genotypes were found, of which six were related to the TPA SS14 strain, and four to the TPA Nichols strain. The 23S rRNA gene was amplified in samples isolated from 42 patients, and in six of them (14.3%), either the A2058G (four patients, 9.5%) or the A2059G (two patients, 4.8%) mutations were found. In addition to Taiwan, Madagascar and Peru, Argentina is another country where the prevalence of Nichols-like isolates (26.8%) is greater than 10%.

Department of Biology Faculty of Medicine Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic

Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas en Retrovirus y SIDA Universidad de Buenos Aires CONICET Buenos Aires Argentina

Universidad de Buenos Aires Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica Departamento de Bioquímica Clínica Cátedra de Microbiología Clínica Buenos Aires Argentina

Universidad de Buenos Aires Hospital de Clínicas José de San Martín Programa de Enfermedades de Transmisión Sexual Buenos Aires Argentina

Universidad de Buenos Aires Instituto de Fisiopatología y Bioquímica Clínica Buenos Aires Argentina

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High frequency of Nichols-like strains and increased levels of macrolide resistance in Treponema pallidum in clinical samples from Buenos Aires, Argentina

No bejel among Surinamese, Antillean and Dutch syphilis diagnosed patients in Amsterdam between 2006-2018 evidenced by multi-locus sequence typing of Treponema pallidum isolates

Directly Sequenced Genomes of Contemporary Strains of Syphilis Reveal Recombination-Driven Diversity in Genes Encoding Predicted Surface-Exposed Antigens

MLST typing of Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum in the Czech Republic during 2004-2017: Clinical isolates belonged to 25 allelic profiles and harbored 8 novel allelic variants

A public database for the new MLST scheme for Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum: surveillance and epidemiology of the causative agent of syphilis

Complete genome sequences of two strains of Treponema pallidum subsp. pertenue from Indonesia: Modular structure of several treponemal genes

Molecular characterization of Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum in Switzerland and France with a new multilocus sequence typing scheme

Multi-locus sequence typing of Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum present in clinical samples from France: Infecting treponemes are genetically diverse and belong to 18 allelic profiles

Sequence Variation of Rare Outer Membrane Protein β-Barrel Domains in Clinical Strains Provides Insights into the Evolution of Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum, the Syphilis Spirochete

Reanalysis of Chinese Treponema pallidum samples: all Chinese samples cluster with SS14-like group of syphilis-causing treponemes