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Updated: Jan 6, 2026

Markerless Gene Deletion by Floxed Cassette Allelic Exchange Mutagenesis in Chlamydia trachomatis
Published on: January 30, 2020
Chlamydia trachomatis-infected human cells convert ceramide to sphingomyelin without sphingomyelin synthases 1 and 2
Yuriko Tachida1, Keigo Kumagai1, Shota Sakai1
1Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Shinjuku-ku, Japan.
Abstract:
The obligate intracellular bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis proliferates in the membranous compartment inclusion formed in host cells. The host ceramide transport protein CERT delivers ceramide from the endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi complex for the synthesis of sphingomyelin (SM). Chlamydia trachomatis has been suggested to employ CERT to produce SM in the inclusion by host SM synthases (SMSs). Here, we found that C. trachomatis proliferates and produces infective progeny even in SMS1 and SMS2 double-knockout HeLa cells, but not in the SMS1/SMS2/CERT triple-knockout cells. Interestingly, infected cells convert ceramide to SM without host SMSs. These results suggest that C. trachomatis-infected cells can convert ceramide to SM without host SMSs after CERT-mediated transfer of ceramide to the inclusions.
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