Advances in genetic manipulation of Chlamydia trachomatis

Weiqiang Wan; Danni Li; Dan Li; Jun Jiao

doi:10.3389/fimmu.2023.1209879

Advances in genetic manipulation of Chlamydia trachomatis

Front Immunol. 2023 Jun 28:14:1209879. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1209879. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Weiqiang Wan¹, Danni Li¹, Dan Li², Jun Jiao¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, China.
² Department of Respiratory Medicine, Center for Pathogen Biology and Infectious Diseases, Key Laboratory of Organ Regeneration and Transplantation of the Ministry of Education, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.

Abstract

Chlamydia trachomatis, one species of Chlamydia spp., has the greatest impact on human health and is the main cause of bacterial sexually transmitted diseases and preventable blindness among all Chamydia spp. species. The obligate intracellular parasitism and unique biphasic developmental cycle of C. trachomatis are the main barriers for the development of tools of genetic manipulation. The past decade has witnessed significant gains in genetic manipulation of C. trachomatis, including chemical mutagenesis, group II intron-based targeted gene knockout, fluorescence-reported allelic exchange mutagenesis (FRAEM), CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) and the recently developed transposon mutagenesis. In this review, we discuss the current status of genetic manipulations of C. trachomatis and highlights new challenges in the nascent field of Chlamydia genetics.

Keywords: Chlamydia trachomatis; challenges; genetic manipulation; intracellular bacterium; transformation.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Chlamydia Infections* / genetics
Chlamydia Infections* / microbiology
Chlamydia trachomatis* / genetics
Gene Knockout Techniques
Humans
Mutagenesis

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [32000139] and the State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity (Academy of Military Medical Science) [SKLPBS2217].