Spirochetes

• What are the characteristics of Spirochetes?


  • Spiral or helical-shaped bacteria
  • thing, tightly coiled, helically shaped Gram-negative bacteria
• What is the unique feature of Spirochetes?


  • presence of axial filaments
  • composed of endoflagella located in periplasmic space between the cytoplasmic membrane and the outer membrane
• How do Spirochetes move?

  • moves in a corkscrew fashion through environment
  • thought to enable pathogenic spirochetes to burrow through host tissue
• What are the three genera that cause human disease?


  • Treponema
  • Borrelia
  • Leptospira