PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Natasha Arora
AU  - Verena J. Schuenemann
AU  - Günter Jäger
AU  - Alexander Peltzer
AU  - Alexander Seitz
AU  - Alexander Herbig
AU  - Michal Strouhal
AU  - Linda Grillová
AU  - Leonor Sánchez-Busó
AU  - Denise Kühnert
AU  - Kirsten I. Bos
AU  - Leyla Rivero Davis
AU  - Lenka Mikalová
AU  - Sylvia Bruisten
AU  - Peter Komericki
AU  - Patrick French
AU  - Paul R. Grant
AU  - María A. Pando
AU  - Lucía Gallo Vaulet
AU  - Marcelo Rodríguez Fermepin
AU  - Antonio Martinez
AU  - Arturo Centurion Lara
AU  - Lorenzo Giacani
AU  - Steven J. Norris
AU  - David Šmajs
AU  - Philipp P. Bosshard
AU  - Fernando González-Candelas
AU  - Kay Nieselt
AU  - Johannes Krause
AU  - Homayoun C. Bagheri
TI  - Origin of modern syphilis and emergence of a contemporary pandemic cluster
AID  - 10.1101/051037
DP  - 2016 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 051037
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/04/29/051037.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/04/29/051037.full
AB  - Syphilis swept across the world in the 16th century as one of most prominent documented pandemics and is re-emerging worldwide despite the availability of effective antibiotics. Little is known about the genetic patterns in current infections or the evolutionary origins of the disease due to the non-cultivable and clonal nature of the causative bacterium Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum. In this study, we used DNA capture and next generation sequencing to obtain whole genome data from syphilis patient specimens and from treponemes propagated in laboratory settings. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that the syphilis strains examined here share a common ancestor after the 15th century. Moreover, most contemporary strains are azithromycin resistant and members of a globally dominant cluster named here as SS14-Ω. This cluster diversified from a common ancestor in the mid-20th century and has the population genetic and epidemiological features indicative of the emergence of a pandemic strain cluster.