Chlamydia and Chlamydophila species
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Chlamydophila psittaci involved in feline rhinotracheitis together with herpes virus 1 C.psittaci more frequently infects the conjunctival epithelium -> chronic conjunctivitis, see feline chlamydiosis
- May cause arthritis in sheep and arthritis in cattle
Overview
Characteristics
- Obligate intracellular bacteria
- Gram negative bacteria with outer membrane, LPS, ribosomes, DNA and RNA
- Peptidoglycan cell wall resistant to lysozyme
- Only grow in presence of living eukaryotic cells
- Unable to synthesis ATP therefore require intermediates from host cells
Pathogenesis and pathogenicity
- Elementary body, the infective form, phagocytosed and internalised into host epithelial cells
- Transformation into larger reticulate body
- Reticulate body divides by binary fission to form many new chlamydia cells
- Reticulate body has un-crosslinked peptidoglycan, which is cross-linked to form elementary bodies
- Elementary bodies released from dying host cells to infect other cells