Jul 15, 2008 Views: 237
microbiology: ways to get nutrients from host
Chlamydiae are obligate intracellular pathogens, known more widely for causing STDs. They live in an inclusion membrane or parsitophorous vacuole inside the host cells and acquire many nutrients including lipids from the host cytoplasm. Lipid import is necessary for survival of Chlamydia. More than half of Chalmydia genes have no known function. A recent study shows how one of these proteins helps in translocation of lipid droplets from host cytoplasm to Chlamydia inclusion.
Great pictures and video showing this process in Chlamydia infected cell.
Cytoplasmic lipid droplets are translocated into the lumen of the Chlamydia trachomatis parasitophorous vacuole.
http://www.pnas.org/content/105/27/9379.full
Also check out the cover page
http://www.pnas.org/content/105/27.cover-expansion