Authors

E. I. Lutter; C. Bonner; M. J. Holland; R. J. Suchland; W. E. Stamm; T. J. Jewett; G. McClarty;T. Hackstadt

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Infect. Immun.

Keywords

OUTER-MEMBRANE-PROTEIN; NEIGHBOR-JOINING METHOD; TRYPTOPHAN SYNTHASE; SEQUENCE-ANALYSIS; GENOME SEQUENCE; TISSUE TROPISM; STRAINS; GENE; POLYMORPHISMS; SEROVAR; Immunology; Infectious Diseases

Abstract

Chlamydia trachomatis is the leading cause of infectious blindness worldwide and is the most commonly reported pathogen causing sexually transmitted infections. Tarp (translocated actin recruiting phosphoprotein), a type III secreted effector that mediates actin nucleation, is central to C. trachomatis infection. The phylogenetic analysis of tarP from reference strains as well as ocular, genital, and lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) clinical isolates demonstrated an evolutionary relationship with disease phenotype, with LGV and ocular isolates branched into clades that were separate from the urogenital isolates. The sequence analysis of Tarp indicated a high degree of variability and identified trends within clinical groupings. Tarps from LGV strains contained the highest number of tyrosine-rich repeat regions (up to nine) and the fewest (two) predicted actin binding domains. The converse was noted for Tarp proteins from ocular isolates that contained up to four actin binding domains and as few as one tyrosine-rich repeat region. The results suggest that Tarp is among the few known genes to play a role in C. trachomatis adaptations to specific niches within the host.

Journal Title

Infection and Immunity

Volume

78

Issue/Number

9

Publication Date

1-1-2010

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

3678

Last Page

3688

WOS Identifier

WOS:000280986700004

ISSN

0019-9567

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