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Infection and Immunity, November 1998, p. 5364-5371, Vol. 66, No. 11
0019-9567/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Fusion of Chlamydia trachomatis-Containing Inclusions Is Inhibited at Low Temperatures and Requires Bacterial Protein Synthesis

Christiaan Van Ooij,1 Ellen Homola,2 Eleanor Kincaid,1 and Joanne Engel1,2,*

Biomedical Sciences Program1 and Department of Medicine,2 University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143

Received 15 May 1998/Returned for modification 9 July 1998/Accepted 6 August 1998

The human pathogen Chlamydia trachomatis is an obligate intracellular bacterium with a unique developmental cycle. Within the host cell cytoplasm, it resides within a membrane-bound compartment, the inclusion. A distinguishing characteristic of the C. trachomatis life cycle is the fusion of the chlamydia-containing inclusions with each other in the host cell cytoplasm. We report that fusion of inclusions does not occur at 32°C in multiple mammalian cell lines and with three different serovars of C. trachomatis. The inhibition of fusion was inclusion specific; the fusion with sphingolipid-containing secretory vesicles and the interaction with early endosomes were unaffected by incubation at 32°C. The inhibition of fusion of the inclusions was not primarily the result of delayed maturation of the inclusion, as infectious progeny was produced in host cells incubated at 32°C, and the unfused inclusions remained competent to fuse up to 48 h postinfection. The ability to reverse the inhibition of fusion by shifting the infected cells from 32 to 37°C allowed the measurement of the rate and the time of fusion of the inclusions after entry of the bacteria. Most significantly, we demonstrate that fusion of inclusions with each other requires bacterial protein synthesis and that the required bacterial protein(s) is present, but inactive or not secreted, at 32°C.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Box 0654, University of California, San Francisco, 521 Parnassus Ave., San Francisco, CA 94143-0654. Phone: (415) 476-7355. Fax: (415) 476-9364. E-mail: Jengel{at}medicine.ucsf.edu.

Infection and Immunity, November 1998, p. 5364-5371, Vol. 66, No. 11
0019-9567/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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