Comparative genomics of the human oral spirochetes Treponema denticola and T. putidum
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More than 75 species/species-level phylotypes of spirochetes belonging to the genus Treponema inhabit the human oral cavity. The phylogroup 2 species T. denticola is associated with peridontitis, a serious oral infectious-inflammatory disease. T. putidum is a closely related species (originally isolated from human peridontitis lesion) whose clinical relevance and physiology remain largely unknown. We have sequenced the whole genome of 4 human oral T. putidum isolates and compared them with 17 human T. denticola strains.