This study examined the sequences of the two rRNA (rrn) operons of pathogenic non-cultivable treponemes, comprising 11 strains of T. pallidum ssp. pallidum (TPA), five strains of T. pallidum ssp. pertenue (TPE), two strains of T. pallidum ssp. endemicum (TEN), a simian Fribourg-Blanc strain and a rabbit T. paraluiscuniculi (TPc) strain. PCR was used to determine the type of 16S-23S ribosomal intergenic spacers in the rrn operons from 30 clinical samples belonging to five different genotypes. When compared with the TPA strains, TPc Cuniculi A strain had a 17 bp deletion, and the TPE, TEN and Fribourg-Blanc isolates had a deletion of 33 bp. Other than these deletions, only 17 heterogeneous sites were found within the entire region (excluding the 16S-23S intergenic spacer region encoding tRNA-Ile or tRNA-Ala). The pattern of nucleotide changes in the rrn operons corresponded to the classification of treponemal strains, whilst two different rrn spacer patterns (Ile/Ala and Ala/Ile) appeared to be distributed randomly across species/subspecies classification, time and geographical source of the treponemal strains. It is suggested that the random distribution of tRNA genes is caused by reciprocal translocation between repetitive sequences mediated by a recBCD-like system.
- MeSH
- DNA, Bacterial chemistry genetics MeSH
- Phylogeny MeSH
- Genetic Variation MeSH
- Genome, Bacterial MeSH
- Genotype MeSH
- DNA, Ribosomal Spacer genetics MeSH
- Molecular Sequence Data MeSH
- RNA, Ribosomal, 16S genetics MeSH
- RNA, Ribosomal, 23S genetics MeSH
- rRNA Operon * MeSH
- Base Sequence MeSH
- Sequence Analysis, DNA MeSH
- Sequence Deletion MeSH
- Treponema pallidum classification genetics MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
