Division of Zoological Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences of Companion Animals, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80.154, Utrecht 3508 TD, The Netherlands.
Vet Microbiol. 2013 May 31;164(1-2):190-4. doi: 10.1016/j.vetmic.2013.02.001. Epub 2013 Feb 11.
Cross infection of rabbits and hares with Treponema paraluiscuniculi from rabbits and the related microorganism from hares, which was provisionally named "Treponema paraluisleporis", revealed that T. paraluiscuniculi affects rabbits clinically, but only causes seroconversion in hares without causing clinical disease, while "T. paraluisleporis" induces disease in both rabbits and hares. The 16S rRNA gene of "T. paraluisleporis" was sequenced (GenBank acc. no. JX899416) and compared to the sequence of T. paraluiscuniculi strain Cuniculi A. A phylogenetic tree based on the sequence alignment of 2002 bp taken from several treponemal strains was constructed. Both "T. paraluisleporis" and T. paraluiscuniculi are clustered together indicating their common origin. The close phylogenetic relatedness of both representatives supports the conclusion that subspecies or ecovar status should be given to these strains rather than species status. A more appropriate species name might be Treponema paraluisleporidarum. The genitive refers to the nominative Leporidae (family of rabbits and hares). The naturally occurring strain in rabbits would than be T. paraluisleporidarum ecovar Cuniculus and the strain from hares T. paraluisleporidarum ecovar Lepus. Since the former seems to have fewer physiological hosts, ecovar Lepus may represent an evolutionary ancestor of ecovar Cuniculus.
兔密螺旋体与来自兔的相关微生物“兔密螺旋体亚种 Leporis”交叉感染兔和兔，暂命名为“兔密螺旋体亚种 Leporis”，表明兔密螺旋体临床感染兔，但仅引起兔血清学转换而不引起临床疾病，而“兔密螺旋体亚种 Leporis”引起兔和兔疾病。“兔密螺旋体亚种 Leporis”的 16S rRNA 基因进行测序（GenBank acc. no. JX899416），并与兔密螺旋体菌株 Cuniculi A 的序列进行比较。基于来自几种密螺旋体菌株的 2002bp 序列比对构建了一个系统发育树。“兔密螺旋体亚种 Leporis”和兔密螺旋体都聚集在一起，表明它们有共同的起源。两个代表的密切系统发育关系支持这样的结论，即这些菌株应给予亚种或生态型地位，而不是种地位。更合适的种名可能是兔密螺旋体亚种 Leporidarum。属名指的是兔科（兔和野兔科）。兔中自然发生的菌株将是兔密螺旋体亚种 Leporidarum ecovar Cuniculus，而来自野兔的菌株是兔密螺旋体亚种 Leporidarum ecovar Lepus。由于前者似乎宿主较少，生态型 Lepus 可能代表生态型 Cuniculus 的进化祖先。
