Chlamydiae may exist at the site of infection in an alternative replicative form, called the aberrant body (AB). ABs are produced during a viable but non-infectious developmental state termed "persistence" or "chlamydial stress." As persistent/stressed chlamydiae: (i) may contribute to chronic inflammation observed in diseases like trachoma; and (ii) are more resistant to current anti-chlamydia...

The effects of Chlamydia trachomatis (serovars E, K, and L2) on human neutrophil activation were examined with respect to the organisms both as primary agonists and as agents that modulate cell responses to a second stimulus. Unopsonized chlamydiae alone, at ratios of 1.5 to 100 organisms per cell, failed to elicit changes in intracellular calcium or membrane depolarization or to stimulate the ...

The "chlamydial anomaly," first coined by James Moulder, describes the inability of researchers to detect or purify peptidoglycan (PG) from pathogenic Chlamydiae despite genetic and biochemical evidence and antibiotic susceptibility data that suggest its existence. We recently detected PG in Chlamydia trachomatis by a new metabolic cell wall labeling method, however efforts to purify PG from pa...

Chlamydia trachomatis is an obligate intracellular pathogen that replicates within a parasitophorous vacuole termed an inclusion. The chlamydial inclusion is isolated from the endocytic pathway but fusogenic with Golgi-derived exocytic vesicles containing sphingomyelin and cholesterol. Sphingolipids are incorporated into the chlamydial cell wall and are considered essential for chlamydial devel...

ATP/ADP translocases are a hallmark of obligate intracellular pathogens related to chlamydiae and rickettsiae. These proteins catalyze the highly specific exchange of bacterial ADP against host ATP and thus allow bacteria to exploit their hosts' energy pool, a process also referred to as energy parasitism. The genome sequence of the obligate intracellular pathogen Lawsonia intracellularis (Delt...

Bacteria from the Planctomycetes, Verrucomicrobia, and Chlamydiae (PVC) superphylum are exceptions to the otherwise dominant mode of division by binary fission, which is based on the interaction between the FtsZ protein and the peptidoglycan (PG) biosynthesis machinery. Some PVC bacteria are deprived of the FtsZ protein and were also thought to lack PG. How these bacteria divide is still one of...