spirochete

[′spī·rə‚kēt]

(microbiology)

The common name for any member of the order Spirochaetales.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Spirochete

a bacterium, measuring 0.1–0.6 micrometer in diameter and 5–500 micrometers in length, in the form of an elongated coiled spiral. The majority of species have a slender axis filament around which the body of the cell is spirally coiled. Spirochetes lack flagella and are characterized by undulating movements, during which the cells rotate around their long axis. Reproduction is by transverse fission.

Spirochetes may be nonpathogenic or pathogenic. The former inhabit freshwaters, and the latter parasitize mollusks and cause syphilis in man (Treponema pallidum), relapsing fever (Borrelia recurrentis), and other spirochetoses. Under artificial conditions, nonpathogenic spirochetes grow on ordinary nutrient mediums and pathogenic spirochetes grow on mediums that contain serum and pieces of fresh tissue or the internal organs of animals. Some forms have not yet been grown in the laboratory.

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References in periodicals archive

miyamotoi was not observed in small mammals (10); possible reasons are that the spirochete is rarer in this locality (NIP = 0.4% in Alameda study sites), that mammal capture periods were dispersed across multiple years and not as coincident with nymphal tick activity, or that brush mice and California mice were not captured at that location.

Borrelia miyamotoi Infections in Small Mammals, California, USA

Human intestinal spirochetosis is characterized by the presence of a layer of spirochetes adherent to the apical epithelial surface of the colorectal mucosa.

Cross-reactivity of Anti-Treponema Immunohistochemistry With Non-Treponema Spirochetes: A Simple Call for Caution

The use of PKH staining allowed the subsequent quantification of spirochete association with 8 tick cell lines by flow cytometry and by fluorescence and confocal microscopy.

Fluorescent membrane markers elucidate the association of Borrelia burgdorferi with tick cell lines

Such spirochete phenotypes could contribute to the intensity of transmission and the overall risk of Lyme borreliosis.

Lyme borreliosis: is there a preexisting (natural) variation in antimicrobial susceptibility among Borrelia burgdorferi strains?

However, "an extraordinary density of morphologically distinct spirochetes" later identified as B.

Newly described tick-borne infection in New England

In one report of a patient who developed an EM rash after traveling to Maryland and North Carolina, a novel spirochete was detected by PCR from both the patient and the tick still attached to his abdomen.

Hitting the target: Lyme or STARI?

The risk of transmission of the spirochete (B, Burgdorferi) from the infected deer tick is directly related to how long the tick stays attached (the duration of the feeding).

"Baby Doc" Eden explains

The spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi belongs to Spirochetaceae family [3].

Lyme disease: etiology, pathogenesis, clinical courses, diagnostics and treatment

These results indicate that both elk and moose are susceptible to infection and may be a source of transmitting the spirochete to ticks (Kathleen et al., 2003).

RETROSPECTIVE STUDY ON SEROPREVALENCE OF BORRELIA BURGDORFERI IN ELK AND MOOSE IN MINNESOTA

For amplification of the entire spirochete 16S rRNA (~1,500 bp), the spirochete-specific reverse primer C90 (Dewhirst et al.

Spirochetes in crystalline styles of marine bivalves: group-specific PCR detection and 16s RRNA sequence analysis

Leptospirosis, a zoonosis with protean manifestations caused by the spirochete, Leptospira interrogans, occurs worldwide.

Leptospirosis induced pulmonary alveolar hemorrhage