![]() ![]() Recently, there have been multiple reports concerning the mechanism of chlamydial cell division as well as the role of peptidoglycan (PG) in this process. Some examples of such genes include those involved in cell division, such as the canonical organizer of the division site, ftsZ ( 4). ![]() In adapting to their obligate intracellular niche, these pathogens have significantly reduced their genome size and content, which includes the elimination of genes that would otherwise be essential in most bacteria ( 3). After multiple rounds of division, RBs differentiate to EBs and are released from the cell. An EB infects a cell and differentiates to an RB, which multiplies within a membrane-bound parasitic organelle called an inclusion ( 2). The elementary body (EB) is infectious but nondividing, whereas the reticulate body (RB) is noninfectious but dividing. ![]() A brief historical context for these key advances is presented along with a discussion of the current state of knowledge of chlamydial cell division.Ĭhlamydia is a genus of obligate intracellular bacterial pathogens that undergo an unusual biphasic developmental cycle in the course of propagating and disseminating from one cell to another (see reference 1 for a review). Finally, as opposed to using an FtsZ-dependent binary fission process, Chlamydia employs an MreB-dependent polarized budding process to divide. Various studies have suggested and provided evidence that Chlamydia uses MreB to substitute for FtsZ in organizing and coordinating the divisome during division, components of which have been identified and characterized. For example, it has been definitively confirmed that chlamydiae synthesize a canonical PG structure during cell division. Recent research into chlamydial PG synthesis, components of the chlamydial divisome, and the mechanism of chlamydial division have significantly advanced our understanding of these processes in a unique and important pathogen. These Gram-negative pathogens have cell envelopes that lack peptidoglycan (PG), yet they use PG for cell division purposes. Among the genes that Chlamydia has eliminated is ftsZ, encoding the central organizer of cell division that directs cell wall synthesis in the division septum. Chlamydia is an obligate intracellular bacterial pathogen that has significantly reduced its genome size in adapting to its intracellular niche. ![]()
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