Culture-independent metagenomics supports discovery of uncultivable bacteria within the genus Chlamydia.

ABSTRACT: Advances in culture-independent methods have meant that we can more readily detect and diagnose emerging infectious disease threats in humans and animals. Metagenomics is fast becoming a popular tool for detection and characterisation of novel bacterial pathogens in their environment, and is particularly useful for obligate intracellular bacteria such as Chlamydiae that require labour-intensive culturing. We have used this tool to investigate the microbial metagenomes of Chlamydia-positive cloaca and choana samples from snakes. The microbial complexity within these anatomical sites meant that despite previous detection of chlamydial 16S rRNA sequences by single-gene broad-range PCR, only a chlamydial plasmid could be detected in all samples, and a chlamydial chromosome in one sample. Compa

SUBMITTER: Taylor-Brown A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5587560 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature