Amended biochemical characteristics and phylogenetic position of Treponema medium

Abstract

Umemoto et al. (1997, Int J Syst Bacteriol 47, pp. 67-72) proposed spirochete strain G7201, isolated from the periodontal pocket of an adult patient, as a new species, Treponema medium. They deposited this strain in the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) as type strain ATCC 700293T. Recently, ATCC suggested that there is a discrepancy between the previous report and the results obtained by ATCC in biochemical tests on T. medium ATCC 700293T. In this study, we re-examined and verified the biochemical characteristics of T. medium. The fermentation pattern of carbohydrates of T. medium resembled that of Treponema vincentii and Treponema denticola, but T. medium was clearly differentiated from T. vincentii in the production of indole, and from T. denticola in the hydrolysis of esculin. Also, sodium dodecylsulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) protein profile analysis and phylogenetic comparison of 16S rDNA sequences revealed that T. medium is clearly differentiated from any established treponemal species, which supports the validity of the proposal of Treponema medium as a new species.

Molecular analysis of human oral microbiota

“…Although the relationship between periodontitis and oral treponemes has been emphasized clinically, cultivation studies of oral treponemes are limited because of the oxygen sensitivity and unique nutritional requirements of these microorganisms and the long cultivation period (7, 8). The following species of cultivable oral treponemes have been validated: Treponema amylovorum (9), T. denticola (10), T. lecithinolyticum (11), T. maltophilum (12), T. medium (13, 14), T. parvum (15), T. pectinovorum (16), T. putidum (17), T. socranskii (18), and ‘ T. vincentii ’. (The last treponeme has not been validated in a peer‐reviewed publication.…”

Treponema medium Glycoconjugate Inhibits Activation of Human Gingival Fibroblasts Stimulated with Phenol-Water Extracts of Periodontopathic Bacteria

“…Oral spirochetes, generally belonging to the genus Treponema, have been found in subgingival plaque from patients with periodontal diseases (Riviere et al, 1991;Dewhirst et al, 2000). Among them, Treponema medium, an intermediate-sized treponeme, has been isolated from the subgingival plaque of patients with adult periodontitis (Umemoto et al, 1997;Nakazawa et al, 2003). Further, using a real-time PCR assay, we recently showed that the number of T. medium organisms was increased in subgingival plaque samples from deep periodontal pockets (Asai et al, 2002).…”

Multilocus Sequence Analysis of Phylogroup 1 and 2 Oral Treponeme Strains

“…[formerly] G7201 [22,23] It has been proposed (C. Wyss, unpublished data) that Treponema sp. strain ATCC 700772 (OMZ 838), whose full genome sequence has recently been reported (44), as well as three other Treponema strains-OMZ 855, OMZ 856, and OMZ 857-correspond to a new species that has tentatively been named Treponema sinensis (to reflect the strain's Chinese origins) (59).…”

“…To the best of our knowledge, the properties of only one T. medium strain (ATCC 700293; ex. G7201) have been reported (22,23). Thus, in the absence of data from additional strains, the precise nature of the relationship between T. medium and Treponema sp.…”

“…Nine species of oral treponemes have been formally characterized in the scientific literature (the reporting year is indicated in parentheses): Treponema denticola (1993) (18); Treponema pectinovorum (1983) (19); Treponema socranskii (1998; three subspecies: socranskii, paredis, and buccale) (20); Treponema maltophilum (1996) (21); Treponema medium (1997) (22), whose description was amended in 2003 (23); Treponema amylovorum (1997) (24); Treponema lecithinolyticum (1999) (25); Treponema parvum (2001) (26); and Treponema putidum (2004) (27). "Treponema vincentii" is also generally considered to constitute an oral treponeme species, having been studied and reported in the scientific literature for more than 60 years (28)(29)(30)(31).…”