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Updated: Mar 17, 2026

Forward Genetic Approaches in Chlamydia trachomatis
09:03

Forward Genetic Approaches in Chlamydia trachomatis

Published on: October 23, 2013

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The Number, Organization, and Size of Polymorphic Membrane Protein Coding Sequences as well as the Most Conserved Pmp

Sarah Van Lent1, Heather Huot Creasy, Garry S A Myers

  • 1Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.

Journal of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology
|July 28, 2016
PubMed

Insights

Polymorphic membrane proteins (Pmp) vary within and across Chlamydia species. PmpB is the most conserved Pmp across these species, while others show species-specific conservation patterns.

Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Genomics
  • Protein Science

Background:

  • Polymorphic membrane proteins (Pmp) are key to Chlamydia pathogenesis.
  • Pmp gene and protein conservation is largely uncharacterized across different Chlamydia species.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the conservation of Pmp proteins within and across four Chlamydia species: C. trachomatis, C. pneumoniae, C. abortus, and C. psittaci.
  • To determine if the number of pmp coding sequences is constant within a Chlamydia species.

Main Methods:

  • Genome-wide annotation of pmp coding sequences.
  • Comparative analysis of pmp gene number, organization, and protein length across 16 C. trachomatis, 6 C. pneumoniae, 2 C. abortus, and 16 C. psittaci genomes.

Main Results:

  • Significant variation in the number and organization of pmp coding sequences was observed within and across the studied Chlamydia species.
  • The length of pmpA, pmpB, and pmpH coding sequences were conserved across all analyzed genomes.
  • The lengths of pmpE/F, pmpG, and pmpD subtypes varied among species, with PmpD showing remarkable length differences. PmpD, PmpA, PmpH, and PmpA were the most conserved Pmp in C. trachomatis, C. pneumoniae, C. abortus, and C. psittaci, respectively. PmpB was the most conserved Pmp across all four species.

Conclusions:

  • The number and organization of Pmp coding sequences are not constant within Chlamydia species.
  • Pmp protein conservation varies significantly both within and across Chlamydia species, with PmpB exhibiting the highest cross-species conservation.

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