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Letter

Chlamydia trachomatis: Genome sequence analysis of lymphogranuloma venereum isolates

¹ The Pathogen Sequencing Unit, The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK; ² Chlamydia and Molecular Laboratory, Department of Clinical Microbiology, University College Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, The Windeyer Institute of Medical Sciences, London, W1T 4JF, UK; ³ Molecular Microbiology Group, University Medical School, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, SO16 6YD, UK; ⁴ Health Protection Agency South East, Southampton Laboratory, Southampton General Hostpital, Southampton, SO16 6YD, UK; ⁵ Centre for Proteomic Research, School of Biological Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO16 7PX, UK; ⁶ School of Public Health, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

Chlamydia trachomatis is the most common cause of sexually transmitted infections in the UK, a statistic that is also reflected globally. There are three biovariants of C. trachomatis: trachoma (serotypes A–C) and two sexually transmitted pathovars; serotypes D–K and lyphogranuloma venereum (LGV). Trachoma isolates and the sexually transmitted serotypes D–K are noninvasive, whereas the LGV strains are invasive, causing a disseminating infection of the local draining lymph nodes. Genome sequences are available for single isolates from the trachoma (serotype A) and sexually transmitted (serotype D) biotypes. We sequenced two isolates from the remaining biotype, LGV, a long-term laboratory passaged strain and the recent "epidemic" LGV isolate-causing proctitis. Although the genome of the LGV strain shows no additional genes that could account for the differences in disease outcome, we found evidence of functional gene loss and identified regions of heightened sequence variation that have previously been shown to be important sites for interstrain recombination. We have used new sequencing technologies to show that the recent clinical LGV isolate causing proctitis is unlikely to be a newly emerged strain but is most probably an old strain with relatively new clinical manifestations.

E-mail nrt{at}sanger.ac.uk; fax 44-1223-494919.

[Supplementary material is available online at www.genome.org. The genome sequence data from this study has been submitted to EMBL: AM884176, AM886278, AM884177, and AM886279.]

Article published online before print. Article and publication date are at http://www.genome.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gr.7020108

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