Kingdom Bacteria Subclass Actinobacteridae Family Cellulomonadaceae Scientific name Tropheryma whipplei Rank Species | Phylum Actinobacteria Order Actinomycetales Genus Tropheryma Higher classification Tropheryma | |
Similar Bacteria, Coxiella, High GC gram+, Bartonella, Kingella kingae | ||
Whipple s disease tropheryma whipplei
Tropheryma whipplei, formerly called Tropheryma whippelii, is a bacterium and the causative organism of Whipple's disease and, rarely, of endocarditis.
Contents
While T. whipplei is categorized with the Gram-positive Actinobacteria, the organism is commonly found to be Gram-negative or Gram-indeterminate when stained in the laboratory. Whipple himself probably observed the organisms as rod-shaped structures with silver stain in his original case.
History of the name
No name was given to the organism until 1991 when the name Tropheryma whippelii was proposed after sections of the bacterial genome were sequenced. The name was changed to Tropheryma whipplei in 2001 (correcting the spelling of Whipple's name) when the organism was deposited in bacterial collections.
Genome structure
Several strains of Tropheryma whipplei have been sequenced.