Revisiting the taxonomy and evolution of pathogenicity of the genus Leptospira through the prism of genomics

The causative agents of leptospirosis are responsible for an emerging zoonotic disease worldwide. One of the major routes of transmission for leptospirosis is the natural environment contaminated with the urine of a wide range of reservoir animals. Soils and surface waters also host a high diversity of non-pathogenic Leptospira and species for which the virulence status is not clearly established. The genus Leptospira is currently divided into 35 species classified into three phylogenetic clusters, which supposedly correlate with the virulence of the bacteria. In this study, a total of 90 Leptospira strains isolated from different environments worldwide including Japan, Malaysia, New Caledonia, Algeria,…

• UP
  Université Paris Diderot
• KP
  Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia
• NS
  Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada