Fig 1.
Potentially human pathogenic leptospires are maintained in zoonotic infection cycles in wildlife and domestic animals. Leptospires colonize the renal proximal tubule of reservoir hosts and are shed in the urine. Urine contamination of water and mud are common sources of human exposure. In humans and disease susceptible animals, leptospires disseminate and cause symptomatic disease ranging from mild to severe and, in some cases, death.
Fig 2.
(A) Phylogenetic tree showing the relatedness of the 64 Leptospira species. Leptospira species are clustered as non-pathogens, low-virulent pathogens, and virulent pathogens according to their virulence status in animal models, prevalence in severe infections, and presence of virulence factors. Node 1 indicates the node from which descend pathogenic species are most frequently involved in human disease. (B) Distribution of gene clusters in the P1 clade revealing an open pan-genome with a relatively high number of gene clusters found only in a single species. Adapted from Vincent and colleagues [5].