Pyrimidine metabolism by intracellular Chlamydia psittaci

Pyrimidine metabolism was studied in the obligate intracellular bacterium Chlamydia psittaci AA Mp in the wild type and a variety of mutant host cell lines with well-defined mutations affecting pyrimidine metabolism. C. psittaci AA Mp cannot synthesize pyrimidines de novo, as assessed by its inability to incorporate aspartic acid into nucleic acid pyrimidines. In addition, the parasite cannot take UTP, CTP, or dCTP from the host cell, nor can it salvage exogenously supplied uridine, cytidine, or deoxycytidine. The primary source of pyrimidine nucleotides is via the salvage of uracil by a uracil phosphoribosyltransferase. Uracil phosphoribosyltransferase activity was detected in crude extracts prepared from highly purified C. psittaci AA Mp reticulate bodies. The presence of CTP synthetase and ribonucleotide reductase is implicated from the incorporation of uracil into nucleic acid cytosine and deoxycytidine. Deoxyuridine was used by the parasite only after cleavage to uracil. C. psittaci AA Mp grew poorly in mutant host cell lines auxotrophic for thymidine. Furthermore, the parasite could not synthesize thymidine nucleotides de novo. C. psittaci AA Mp could take TTP directly from the host cell. In addition, the parasite could incorporate exogenous thymidine and thymine into DNA. Thymidine kinase activity and thymidine-cleaving activity were detected in C. psittaci AA Mp reticulate body extract. Thus, thymidine salvage was totally independent of other pyrimidine salvage.