Quantitative monitoring of the Chlamydia trachomatis developmental cycle using GFP-expressing bacteria, microscopy and flow cytometry.

ABSTRACT: Chlamydiae are obligate intracellular bacteria. These pathogens develop inside host cells through a biphasic cycle alternating between two morphologically distinct forms, the infectious elementary body and the replicative reticulate body. Recently, C. trachomatis strains stably expressing fluorescent proteins were obtained. The fluorochromes are expressed during the intracellular growth of the microbe, allowing bacterial visualization by fluorescence microscopy. Whether they are also present in the infectious form, the elementary body, to a detectable level has not been studied. Here, we show that a C. trachomatis strain transformed with a plasmid expressing the green fluorescent protein (GFP) accumulates sufficient quantities of the probe in elementary bodies for detection by microscopy a

SUBMITTER: Vromman F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4049595 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature