Tetracycline Selective Pressure and Homologous Recombination Shape the Evolution of Chlamydia suis: A Recently Identified Zoonotic Pathogen.

ABSTRACT: Species closely related to the human pathogen Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct) have recently been found to cause zoonotic infections, posing a public health threat especially in the case of tetracycline resistant Chlamydia suis (Cs) strains. These strains acquired a tet(C)-containing cassette via horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Genomes of 11 Cs strains from various tissues were sequenced to reconstruct evolutionary pathway(s) for tet(C) HGT. Cs had the highest recombination rate of Chlamydia species studied to date. Admixture occurred among Cs strains and with Chlamydia muridarum but not with Ct Although in vitro tet(C) cassette exchange with Ct has been documented, in vivo evidence may require examining human samples from Ct and Cs co-infected sites. Molecular-clock dating indicated that ancest

SUBMITTER: Joseph SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5010913 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature