Genetic analysis of mechanisms of chlamydial immune evasion

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Abstract Rates of Chlamydia trachomatis sexually transmitted infection are stable or increasing and these infections incur billions in medical costs annually worldwide. Vaccines for these pathogens are needed but our limited understanding of how chlamydiae evade the immune system and target different tissues of their hosts has hindered progress towards this goal. Strain- and species-specific Chlamydia genes that circumvent host interferon stimulated defenses, and other interferon independent genes that mediate ability of these organisms to invade different tissues, may be linked to differences in the pathogenesis of closely-related C. trachomatis isolates. However, most of these genes have not been identified because methods for genetic manipulation of these pathogens have only been recently developed. In aim one of our study we will use forward genetic screens, new genetic mapping tools and mouse models to identify genes that a mouse-adapted C. trachomatis relative uses to evade immunity and infect different tissues in mice and dissect how these function. Similar approaches will be used in aim 2 to identify and characterize the functions of C. trachomatis genes that mediate the ability of these organisms to attach to, invade and avoid immune responses in distinct human tissues. Finally, in aim 3 we will develop new genetic approaches for Chlamydia that make it easier to identify, and test hypothesis concerning the functions of the genes that mediate abilities of these organisms to invade different tissue and evade immune responses of their hosts.