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Chlamydia trachomatis Energy Metabolism and Dependency on Host Cells
Author(s) -
Liang Pingdong,
Tuz Karina,
Juarez Oscar
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.2019.33.1_supplement.485.6
Subject(s) - chlamydia trachomatis , chlamydiae , biology , respiratory chain , chlamydia trachomatis infection , mitochondrion , intracellular parasite , intracellular , virology , metabolism , microbiology and biotechnology , biochemistry
Chlamydia trachomatis is an obligate intracellular human pathogen responsible for the most prevalent sexually‐transmitted infection in the world. C. trachomatis has been considered an “energy parasite” that relies entirely on the energy generated from the host cell. However, genomic data suggest that this parasite contains components of a complete respiratory chain. In this work, we prove that C. trachomatis has an active sodium‐dependent respiratory metabolism via selectively inhibiting mitochondrial and chlamydial respiratory chains during measurement of oxygen consumption. Moreover, our immunohistochemistry results show that the inhibition of mitochondrial ATP synthesis at an early stage of the infection decreases the chlamydial inclusion size and the rate of infection. However, the inhibition of the chlamydial respiratory chain at mid‐stage of the infection could only decrease the inclusion size but not the infection rate. Currently, we are patching up the energy metabolism of C. trachomatis with the persistent form. Through western blot against up‐regulated protein in persistent form C. trachomatis , we found that the formation of persistent C. trachomatis is suppressed under inhibition of mitochondrial and chlamydial respiratory chain. Remarkably, in the presence of monensin, a Na + /H + exchanger, the chlamydial infection is completely halted at any stages of the infection. Altogether, it indicates that C. trachomatis has a dynamic relationship with the mitochondrial metabolism of the host. The parasite mostly requires the host ATP synthesis at an early stage to initial the infection, and at later stages it can supplies its own energy needs through the formation of a sodium gradient but to form persistence both mitochondrial and chlamydial respiratory activities are necessary. This model opens up a novel insight for drug development against chlamydial infection. Support or Funding Information This work is supported by IIT startup funds to Dr. Oscar Juarez.Scheme of Na + ‐based Chlamydial Energy MetabolismThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .