Sifilis, emigrant from America

2008/02/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Eboluzioa
• Medikuntza

At Emory University in Atlanta they have found some kinship between the syphilis bacteria Treponema pallidum and the South American bacteria yaws Treponema pertenece eciue. This means that syphilis may have its origin in America.

In fact, they compared the genes of twenty-two human samples of Treponema. Two of them gathered in a village in Guyana, affected by an outbreak of yaws disease. Unfortunately, due to tropical heat, these two samples were quite damaged and could only obtain parts of the genome. However, among those who obtained, were the 17 pairs of bases used to differentiate the species Treponema. In fact, they present a great variability in these base pairs: most species do not have any of these base pairs in the bath and, in any case, only have a couple of bases.

In the two species under study, on the contrary, four of these 17 base pairs were identical. This has made scientists think that they are related and that syphilis bacteria are born from the other bacteria.

However, they still do not want to affirm it because they have been able to compare very little genetic information and do not know what genetic evolution they have had. They will have to wait for more research.