Tropheryma whipplei

Tropheryma whipplei is a bacterium and the causative organism of Whipple's disease. 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, but 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) after deposition in bacterial collections.

Pathogenesis

 * See Whipple's disease