Mathieu Picardeau

In comparison to other bacterial species, genetics and molecular basis of the pathogenesis of leptospires are in their infancy. An improved understanding of leptospiral pathogenesis requires reliable genetic tools for functional genetic analysis of […]

Site-directed homologous recombination has not been successful in pathogenic Leptospira and there exist only a few examples of mutants obtained by targeted mutagenesis. We have generated a library of random mutants in the pathogen […]

Leptospira spp. are thin, highly motile, slow-growing spirochetes that can be distinguished from other bacteria on the basis of their unique helical shape and the presence of periplasmic flagella. We showed that peptidoglycan sacculi […]

We previously demonstrated that the inactivation of a two-component system (TCS), called HemK/HemR, results in heme auxotrophy in the saprophyte L. biflexa. In L. interrogans, the hemK and hemR orthologous genes are located within […]

The roles of leptospiral exoproteins in the mechanisms of disease manifestation in the host have not been determined. We assessed the composition and quantity of exoproteins of pathogenic L. interrogans and their contribution to […]

Early laboratory diagnosis of leptospirosis is important to provide appropriate treatment of patients and to take rapid measures in case of an outbreak. Unfortunately, few tests possess both high sensitivity and specificity; this is […]

The genus Leptospira includes 21 Leptospira species, including L. mayottensis (see below), and more than 300 serovars have been described. Little is known about the circulating etiological agents of leptospirosis in most of the […]