Host Organelle Hijackers: A similar modus operandi for Toxoplasma gondii and Chlamydia trachomatis-Co-infection model as a tool to investigate pathogenesis

Pathog Dis. 2013 Jul 2. doi: 10.1111/2049-632X.12057. [Epub ahead of print]

Host Organelle Hijackers: A similar modus operandi for Toxoplasma gondii and Chlamydia trachomatis-Co-infection model as a tool to investigate pathogenesis
Romano JD, Coppens I.

Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA.

The bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis and the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii are the causative agents of chlamydiosis and toxoplasmosis in humans, respectively. Both micro-organisms are obligate intracellular pathogens and notorious for extensively modifying the cytoskeletal architecture and the endomembrane system of their host cells to establish productive infections. This review highlights the similar tactics developed by these two pathogens to manipulate their host cell despite their genetic unrelatedness. By using an in vitro cell culture model whereby single fibroblasts are infected by C. trachomatis and T. gondii simultaneously, thus setting up an intracellular competition, we demonstrate that the solutions to the problem of intracellular survival deployed by the parasite and the bacterium may represent an example of convergent evolution, driven by the necessity to acquire nutrients in a hostile environment. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

PMID: 23821471 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]