Treponema pallidum is a spirochaete bacterium. It is not seen on a Gram stained smear because the organism is too thin. Habitat: Human genital tract. Transmission by sexual contact and from mother to fetus across placenta.
There are at least four known subspecies:
There is some variation as to which are considered subspecies, and which are species. The cause of pinta is sometimes described as "Treponema carateum", rather than a subspecies of Trep...
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Treponema pallidum is a spirochaete bacterium. It is not seen on a Gram stained smear because the organism is too thin. Habitat: Human genital tract. Transmission by sexual contact and from mother to fetus across placenta.
There are at least four known subspecies:
There is some variation as to which are considered subspecies, and which are species. The cause of pinta is sometimes described as "Treponema carateum", rather than a subspecies of Treponema pallidum, even when the subspecies convention is used for the other agents.
This bacterium is too thin to be visualized with a standard Gram stain so two techniques to visualize it with a light microscope are dark field microscopy and immunofluorescence.
Treponema pallidum is also detected by serology, including nontreponemal (VDRL, Rapid plasma reagin (RPR) and treponemal antibody tests (FTA-ABS, Treponema pallidum immobilization reaction (TPI) and Syphilis TPHA test).
T. pallidum pallidum is a motile spirochaete that is generally...
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