Computational Modeling of the Chlamydial Developmental Cycle Reveals a Potential Role for Asymmetric Division.

ABSTRACT: Chlamydia trachomatis is an obligate intracellular bacterium that progresses through an essential multicell form developmental cycle. Infection of the host is initiated by the elementary body (EB). Once in the host, the EB cell differentiates into the noninfectious, but replication-competent, reticulate body, or RB. After multiple rounds of replication, RBs undergo secondary differentiation, eventually producing newly infectious EBs. Here, we generated paired cell-type promoter reporter constructs and determined the kinetics of the activities of the euo, hctA, and hctB promoters. The paired constructs revealed that the developmental cycle produces at least three phenotypically distinct cell types, the RB (euoprom⁺), intermediate body (IB; hctAp

SUBMITTER: Chiarelli TJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10134819 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature