Polymorphisms in inc proteins and differential expression of inc genes among Chlamydia trachomatis strains correlate with invasiveness and tropism of lymphogranuloma venereum isolates.

ABSTRACT: Chlamydia trachomatis is a human bacterial pathogen that multiplies only within an intracellular membrane-bound vacuole, the inclusion. C. trachomatis includes ocular and urogenital strains, usually causing infections restricted to epithelial cells of the conjunctiva and genital mucosa, respectively, and lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) strains, which can infect macrophages and spread into lymph nodes. However, C. trachomatis genomes display >98% identity at the DNA level. In this work, we studied whether C. trachomatis Inc proteins, which have a bilobed hydrophobic domain that may mediate their insertion in the inclusion membrane, could be a factor determining these different types of infection and tropisms. Analyses of polymorphisms and phylogeny of 48 Inc proteins from 51 strains encompas

SUBMITTER: Almeida F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3497493 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature