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DC Field | Value | Language |
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dc.contributor.author | Harper, KN | - |
dc.contributor.author | Ocampo, PS | - |
dc.contributor.author | Steiner, BM | - |
dc.contributor.author | George, RW | - |
dc.contributor.author | Silverman, MS | - |
dc.contributor.author | Bolotin, S | - |
dc.contributor.author | Pillay, A | - |
dc.contributor.author | Saunders, NJ | - |
dc.contributor.author | Armelagos, GJ | - |
dc.date.accessioned | 2012-09-14T15:06:47Z | - |
dc.date.available | 2012-09-14T15:06:47Z | - |
dc.date.issued | 2008 | - |
dc.identifier.citation | PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2(1): e148, Jan 2008 | en_US |
dc.identifier.issn | 1935-2727 | - |
dc.identifier.uri | http://www.plosntds.org/article/info%3Adoi/10.1371/journal.pntd.0000148 | en |
dc.identifier.uri | http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/6666 | - |
dc.description | Copyright @ 2007 The Authors | en_US |
dc.description.abstract | Background: Since the first recorded epidemic of syphilis in 1495, controversy has surrounded the origins of the bacterium Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum and its relationship to the pathogens responsible for other treponemal diseases: yaws, endemic syphilis, and pinta. Some researchers have argued that the syphilis-causing bacterium, or its progenitor, was brought from the New World to Europe by Christopher Columbus and his men, while others maintain that the treponematoses, including syphilis, have a much longer history on the European continent. Methodology/Principal findings: We applied phylogenetics to this problem, using data from 21 genetic regions examined in 26 geographically disparate strains of pathogenic Treponema. Of all the strains examined, the venereal syphilis-causing strains originated most recently and were more closely related to yaws-causing strains from South America than to other non-venereal strains. Old World yaws-causing strains occupied a basal position on the tree, indicating that they arose first in human history, and a simian strain of T. pallidum was found to be indistinguishable from them. Conclusions/Significance: Our results lend support to the Columbian theory of syphilis's origin while suggesting that the non-sexually transmitted subspecies arose earlier in the Old World. This study represents the first attempt to address the problem of the origin of syphilis using molecular genetics, as well as the first source of information regarding the genetic make-up of non-venereal strains from the Western hemisphere. | en_US |
dc.description.sponsorship | This work was supported by a pre-doctoral fellowship from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and dissertation improvement grants from the National Science Foundation (Award Number 0622399) and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. | en_US |
dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
dc.publisher | Public Library of Science | en_US |
dc.title | On the origin of trepanomatoses: A phylogenetic approach | en_US |
dc.type | Article | en_US |
dc.identifier.doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0000148 | - |
pubs.organisational-data | /Brunel | - |
pubs.organisational-data | /Brunel/Brunel Active Staff | - |
pubs.organisational-data | /Brunel/Brunel Active Staff/School of Health Sciences & Social Care | - |
pubs.organisational-data | /Brunel/Brunel Active Staff/School of Health Sciences & Social Care/Biological Sciences | - |
pubs.organisational-data | /Brunel/Group Publication Pages | - |
pubs.organisational-data | /Brunel/University Research Centres and Groups | - |
pubs.organisational-data | /Brunel/University Research Centres and Groups/School of Health Sciences and Social Care - URCs and Groups | - |
pubs.organisational-data | /Brunel/University Research Centres and Groups/School of Health Sciences and Social Care - URCs and Groups/Centre for Systems and Synthetic Biology | - |
Appears in Collections: | Biological Sciences Publications Dept of Life Sciences Research Papers |
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