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Infection and Immunity, August 2009, p. 3284-3293, Vol. 77, No. 8
0019-9567/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.00147-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Strain and Virulence Diversity in the Mouse Pathogen Chlamydia muridarum{triangledown}

Kyle H. Ramsey,1* Ira M. Sigar,1 Justin H. Schripsema,1 Cecele J. Denman,1 Anne K. Bowlin,2 Garry A. S. Myers,3 and Roger G. Rank2

Microbiology and Immunology Department, Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine, Midwestern University, Downers Grove, Illinois 60515,1 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Arkansas for Medical Science, 4301 West Markham Street, Little Rock, Arkansas 72015,2 Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 212013

Received 6 February 2009/ Returned for modification 31 March 2009/ Accepted 19 May 2009

The mouse chlamydial pathogen Chlamydia muridarum has been used as a model organism for the study of human Chlamydia trachomatis urogenital and respiratory tract infections. To date, two commonly used C. muridarum isolates have been used interchangeably and are essentially taken to be identical. Herein, we present data that indicate that this is not the case. The C. muridarum Weiss isolate and C. muridarum Nigg isolate varied significantly in their virulences in vivo and possessed different growth characteristics in vitro. Distinct differences were observed in intravaginal 50% infectious doses and in challenge infections, with the Weiss isolate displaying greater virulence. Respiratory infection by the intranasal route also indicated a greater virulence of the Weiss isolate. In vitro, morphometric analysis revealed that the Weiss isolate produced consistently smaller inclusions in human cervical adenocarcinoma cells (HeLa 229) and smaller plaques in monolayers of mouse fibroblasts (L929) than did the Nigg isolate. In addition, the Weiss isolate possessed significantly higher replicative yields in vitro than did the Nigg isolate. In plaque-purified isolates derived from our stocks of these two strains, total genomic sequencing identified several unique nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms and insertion/deletion mutations when our Weiss (n = 4) and Nigg (n = 5) isolates were compared with the published Nigg sequence. In addition, the two isolates shared 11 mutations compared to the published Nigg sequence. These results prove that there is genotypic and virulence diversity among C. muridarum isolates. These findings can be exploited to determine factors related to chlamydial virulence and immunity.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine, Midwestern University, 555 31st Street, Downers Grove, IL 60516. Phone: (630) 515-6165. Fax: (630) 515-7245. E-mail: kramse{at}midwestern.edu

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 26 May 2009.

Editor: V. J. DiRita

Infection and Immunity, August 2009, p. 3284-3293, Vol. 77, No. 8
0019-9567/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.00147-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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