Cytoplasmic lipid droplets are translocated into the lumen of the Chlamydia trachomatis parasitophorous vacuole.

ABSTRACT: The acquisition of host-derived lipids is essential for the pathogenesis of the obligate intracellular bacteria Chlamydia trachomatis. Current models of chlamydial lipid acquisition center on the fusion of Golgi-derived exocytic vesicles and endosomal multivesicular bodies with the bacteria-containing parasitophorous vacuole ("inclusion"). In this study, we describe a mechanism of lipid acquisition and organelle subversion by C. trachomatis. We show by live cell fluorescence microscopy and electron microscopy that lipid droplets (LDs), neutral lipid storage organelles, are translocated from the host cytoplasm into the inclusion lumen. LDs dock at the surface of the inclusion, penetrate the inclusion membrane and intimately associate with reticulate Bodies, the replicative form of Chlamydia

SUBMITTER: Cocchiaro JL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2453745 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature