| Cross Index | Treponema |
| SuperSet | Prokaryote, Eubacteria Spirochaetacae |
| Compare | Borrelia,
Brachyspia
aalborgi, Cristispira pectinis, L eptonema illini, Leptospira,
Serpulina Spirochaeta, Treponema, Genera of Insect Gut Spirochetes |
| Contrast | Archaea |
| Subset |
| Morphology | Treponema |
| CELLULAR |
| Staining | Gram negative Most species stain poorly if at all with Gram's or Giemsa's stain. Cells stain well with silver impregnation methods |
| Morphology | Best observed with darkfield or phase contrast microscopy . Helical rods 0.1-0.4 um diameter and 5-20 um in length. Cells have tight regular or irregular spirals |
| Motility | Motile. Cells have both rotational and translational lmovement in liquid media. In a semisolid or solid medium, cells exhibit a serpentine type movement |
| Specialized structures | They have one or more periplasmic flagella (axial fibrils or axial filaments) inserted at each end of the protoplasmic cylinder. Cytoplasmic fibrils (microtubules and intracytoplasmic tubules) are seen in the protoplasmic cylinder just under the cytoplasmic membrane and positioned under the periplasmic flagella. Under unfavourable cultural or environmental conditions spherical cells or spirochetal spheres are formed. These can also be seen in old cultures. |
| Division |
| COLONIAL |
| Solid surface |
| Liquid |
| Growth Parameters | Treponema |
| PHYSIOLOGICAL |
| Oxygen | Strictly anerobic or microaerophilic. |
| pH | |
| Temperature | |
| Requires | Some require long chain fatty acids found in serum for growth, while other cultivated species require short chain volatile fatty acids for growth Chemoorganotrophs, using a variety of carbohydrates or amino acids for carbon and energy sources. |
| Produces | Cultivated anaerobic species are catalase- and oxidase negative. |
| Products | |
| Unique features |
| ENVIRONMENTAL |
| Habitat | Found in the oral cavity, intestinal tract, and genital areas of man and animals. |
| Lifestyle | Host- associated |
| Pathogenicity | Some species are pathogenic. Human pathogenic species are now considered to be microaerophiles and have not been cultivated in artifical media or in tissue culture. |
| Distribution |
| Genome | Treponema |
| G+C Mol % | 25-54. |
| Reference | Treponema |
| First citation | Schaudinn,F.(1905) Korrespondenzen. Deut. Med. Wochenschr 31:1728 |
| Previous names | |
| The Prokaryotes | P |
| Bergey's Systematatic | p 49 R. M. Smibert |
| Bergey's Determinative | p 30 |
| References |