NC_004551:100840 Tropheryma whipplei TW08/27, complete genome
Host Lineage: Tropheryma whipplei; Tropheryma; Cellulomonadaceae; Actinomycetales; Actinobacteria; Bacteria
General Information: This strain was isolated from the cerebrospinal fluid a woman who had suffered severe weight loss in Germany. The patient had been treated with antibiotics followed by a year of no treatment prior to the sample being taken. This bacterium is the causative agent of Whipple's disease. Whipple did not associate the disease with any bacterial agent, and it was only in 1961 when bacteria were detected in electron microphotographs of affected tissues that the connection was made. The bacterium cannot be cultured apart from its eukaryotic host, and it grows very slowly (reported duplication time 4-17 days).