Genome reveals wiles and weak points of syphilis

Pennisi, E.

Science 281(5375): 324-325

1998


ISSN/ISBN: 0036-8075
PMID: 9705704
Document Number: 488657
In this issue, Steven Norris of the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston and colleagues describe the genetic code of Treponema pallidum, the spirochete bacterium that causes syphilis. T. pallidum is almost impossible to study in the laboratory because it does not survive in vitro, but using the tools of modern research, Norris and colleagues have forced it to give up its secrets. The genome sequence is already giving clues to what makes the bacterium so tenacious and how it might be defeated by a vaccine. It may also help investigators solve the long-standing mystery over the origin of syphilis.

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