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Reclassification of Treponema hyodysenteriae and Treponema innocens in a New Genus, Serpula gen. nov., as Serpula hyodysenteriae comb. nov. and Serpula innocens comb. nov.

¹Physiopathology Research Unit, National Animal Disease Center, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Ames, Iowa 50010
²Forsyth Dental Center, Boston, Massachusetts 02115

^* Corresponding author.

ABSTRACT

The intestinal anaerobic spirochetes Treponema hyodysenteriae B78^T (T = type strain), B204, B169, and A-1, Treponema innocens B256^T and 4/71, Treponema succinifaciens 6091^T, and Treponema bryantii RUS-1^T were compared by performing DNA-DNA reassociation experiments, sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of cell proteins, restriction endonuclease analysis of DNA, and 16S rRNA sequence analysis. DNA-DNA relative reassociation experiments in which the S1 nuclease method was used showed that T. hyodysenteriae B78^T and B204 had 93% sequence homology with each other and approximately 40% sequence homology with T. innocens B256^T and 4/71. Both T. hyodysenteriae B78^T and T. innocens B256^T exhibited negligible levels of DNA homology (<5%) with T. succinifaciens 6091^T. The results of comparisons of protein electrophoretic profiles corroborated the DNA-DNA reassociation results. We found high levels of similarity (>96%) in electrophoretic profiles among T. hyodysenteriae strains, moderate levels of similarity (43 to 49%) between T. hyodysenteriae and T. innocens, and no detectable similarity between the profiles of either T. hyodysenteriae or T. innocens and those of T. succinifaciens, T. bryantii, and Escherichia coli. Restriction endonuclease analysis of DNA was not useful in assessing genetic relationships since there was heterogeneity even between strains of T. hyodysenteriae. Partial 16S rRNA sequences of the intestinal spirochetes were determined by using a modified Sanger method and were compared in order to evaluate the phylogenetic relationships among these and other spirochetes. The 16S rRNA sequences of T. hyodysenteriae B78^T, B204, and A-1 were nearly identical (99.8 to 99.9% base sequence similarity). T. innocens B256^T and 4/71 were closely related to the T. hyodysenteriae strains (99.4 and 99.0% similarity). Strains of T. hyodysenteriae and T. innocens exhibited low levels of 16S rRNA similarity (average, 76.5%) with T. pallidum, Borrelia burgdorferi, and various other spirochetes. The results of our investigations indicate that T. hyodysenteriae and T. innocens are distinct but related species of spirochetes. T. hyodysenteriae and T. innocens are only distantly related to T. pallidum, the type species of the genus Treponema, and to other spirochetes. Consequently, we propose that the species T. hyodysenteriae and T. innocens be transferred to a new genus, Serpula, gen. nov.

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