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Review
. 2021 Oct 21;17(10):e1009836.
doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009836. eCollection 2021 Oct.

Pathogenesis insights from an ancient and ubiquitous spirochete

Affiliations
Review

Pathogenesis insights from an ancient and ubiquitous spirochete

Jenifer Coburn et al. PLoS Pathog. .
No abstract available

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

I have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: DAH has relevant intellectual property.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Overview of leptospirosis.
Potentially human pathogenic leptospires are maintained in zoonotic infection cycles in wildlife and domestic animals. Leptospires colonize the renal proximal tubule of reservoir hosts and are shed in the urine. Urine contamination of water and mud are common sources of human exposure. In humans and disease susceptible animals, leptospires disseminate and cause symptomatic disease ranging from mild to severe and, in some cases, death.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Massive species diversity.
(A) Phylogenetic tree showing the relatedness of the 64 Leptospira species. Leptospira species are clustered as non-pathogens, low-virulent pathogens, and virulent pathogens according to their virulence status in animal models, prevalence in severe infections, and presence of virulence factors. Node 1 indicates the node from which descend pathogenic species are most frequently involved in human disease. (B) Distribution of gene clusters in the P1 clade revealing an open pan-genome with a relatively high number of gene clusters found only in a single species. Adapted from Vincent and colleagues [5].

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