The Environmental Chlamydia Transcriptome Project

Chlamydiae cause a wide variety of diseases and are among the most common of the human pathogens. Chlamydophila pneumoniae is responsible for about 10% of community acquired pneumonia and was recently also associated with intrinsic asthma and cardiovascular disease in humans. Chlamydia trachomatis causes trachoma and is considered to be the world`s leading preventable cause of blindness, with about 6 million people blinded as a result of this disease. In addition, C. trachomatis is the most common sexually transmitted bacterial pathogen, with an estimated 90 million new cases occurring each year worldwide. Chlamydiae possess a unique, obligate intracellular developmental cycle and thus are highly adapted for the infection of eukaryotic cells. During the last years a variety of novel chlamydia-like organisms were discovered as endosymbionts of free-living amoebae which were isolated from environmental and clinical samples. These so-called environmental chlamydiae, which form an independent evolutionary lineage within the order Chlamydiales, are ubiquitous and show a similar developmental cycle as their clinically significant counterparts. Recently, we determined the whole genome sequence of a representative of the environmental chlamydiae (http://www.microbial-ecology.net). Results from comparative genomics as well as from molecular and immunological screening of patients with respiratory disease suggest that environmental chlamydia might be new emerging pathogens. However, our current knowledge on the biology of environmental chlamydia is still scarce. This project proposal aims at significantly extending our understanding of the biology of these peculiar microorganisms by exploiting the available whole genome sequence using DNA microarrays and cutting-edge molecular techniques.

Chlamydiae cause a wide variety of diseases and are among the most common of the human pathogens. Chlamydophila pneumoniae is responsible for about 10% of community acquired pneumonia and was recently also associated with intrinsic asthma and cardiovascular disease in humans. Chlamydia trachomatis causes trachoma and is considered to be the world`s leading preventable cause of blindness, with about 6 million people blinded as a result of this disease. In addition, C. trachomatis is the most common sexually transmitted bacterial pathogen, with an estimated 90 million new cases occurring each year worldwide. Chlamydiae possess a unique, obligate intracellular developmental cycle and thus are highly adapted for the infection of eukaryotic cells. During the last years a variety of novel chlamydia-like organisms were discovered as endosymbionts of free-living amoebae which were isolated from environmental and clinical samples. These so-called environmental chlamydiae, which form an independent evolutionary lineage within the order Chlamydiales, are ubiquitous and show a similar developmental cycle as their clinically significant counterparts. Recently, we determined the whole genome sequence of a representative of the environmental chlamydiae (http://www.microbial-ecology.net). Results from comparative genomics as well as from molecular and immunological screening of patients with respiratory disease suggest that environmental chlamydia might be new emerging pathogens. However, our current knowledge on the biology of environmental chlamydia is still scarce. This project proposal aims at significantly extending our understanding of the biology of these peculiar microorganisms by exploiting the available whole genome sequence using DNA microarrays and cutting-edge molecular techniques.