Chlamydia (genus)

For the disease in humans, see Chlamydia infection.

Chlamydia
Chlamydia trachomatis inclusion bodies (brown) in a McCoy cell culture.
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Bacteria
Phylum: Chlamydiota
Class: Chlamydiia
Order: Chlamydiales
Family: Chlamydiaceae
Genus: Chlamydia
Jones, Rake & Stearns 1945
Type species
Chlamydia trachomatis
(Busacca 1935) Rake 1957
Species
Synonyms
  • "Bedsonia" Meyer 1953
  • "Chlamydozoon" Moshkovskiy 1945
  • "Miyagawanella" Brumpt 1938

Chlamydia is a genus of pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria that are obligate intracellular parasites. Chlamydia infections are the most common bacterial sexually transmitted diseases in humans and are the leading cause of infectious blindness worldwide.[1]

Species include Chlamydia trachomatis (a human pathogen), Ch. suis (affects only swine), and Ch. muridarum (affects only mice and hamsters).[2] Humans mainly contract Ch. trachomatis, Ch. pneumoniae, Ch. abortus, and Ch. psittaci.[3]

  1. ^ Drew, W. Lawrence (2004). "Chlamydia". In Ryan, Kenneth; Ray, C. George (eds.). Sherris Medical Microbiology (PDF) (4th ed.). McGraw Hill. pp. 463–470. ISBN 978-0-8385-8529-0.
  2. ^ Ward M. "Taxonomy diagram". Chlamydiae.com. Archived from the original on 2010-09-18. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
  3. ^ Joseph, SJ; et al. (2015), "Chlamydiaceae genomics reveals interspecies admixture and the recent evolution of Chlamydia abortus infecting lower mammalian species and humans", Genome Biol Evol, 7 (11): 3070–3084, doi:10.1093/gbe/evv201, PMC 4994753, PMID 26507799.