Treponema pallidum major sheath protein homologue Tpr K is a target of opsonic antibody and the protective immune response.

"the clones identified above are completely homologous with 3 of the 12 polymorphic genes identified in the newly released t pallidum genome ( http://utmmg med uth tmc edu/treponema/tpall html/ ; sequence available from embl/genbank/ddbj under accession no ae000520 ; reference ).; stamm et al ( ) also submitted the sequence of one of the msp-homologue genes ( tpr j) to genbank (sequence available under accession no u488957)."

"This study was supported by Public Health Service grants AI42143, AI18988, and AI34616 from the National Institutes of Health (S.A. Lukehart) and a Sexually Transmitted Diseases Cooperative Research Center New Investigator Award AI31448 from the National Institutes of Health (A. Centurion-Lara)."