The family leptospiraceae

Abstract

Leptospiraceae are classified as a family belonging to the order Spirochaetales. The family consists of the genera Leptospira, Turneriella, and Leptonema. The genera Turneriella and Leptonema each contain a single species, Turneriella parva and Leptonema illini, and relative to Leptospira very little information is available for strains of these species. In Leptospira, 21 species have been described which are grouped into pathogenic, saprophytic, and intermediate species. The intermediate species form a group distinct from the pathogens and saprophytes by 16S rRNA sequence analysis, and the pathogenicity of these species remains unclear. Members of the genus Leptospira are also classified into serovars which are defined by the structural heterogeneity in the carbohydrate component of the lipopolysaccharide with over 300 different serovars currently identified. This contribution is a modified and updated version of a previous description of the genus Leptospira (Adler B, Faine S, The genus Leptospira. The prokaryotes, Springer, pp 294-317, 2006).