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New clues behind the resilience of a leading sexually transmitted pathogen, chlamydia.

Domman et al. (2014) have explored factors behind the resilience of the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States, chlamydia, with an estimated 1 million infected. The research team sequenced four new strains of close genetic cousins of chlamydial pathogens and examined these with existing DNA data. They found that an extensive and robust shuffling of the genomic deck between chlamydia families has played a major role in the evolution of the pathogen, often serving to outwit and exploit its hosts. They also identified genomic hotspots that seem to play a key role in adaptation and survival, with many having an unknown function. Of note, these gene families were most commonly found to have specific protein features gained from their eukaryotic hosts. By combining their molecular analysis with cell-based assays, the authors demonstrated that these are thought to be secreted proteins that interfere with their hosts’ defenses. The authors argue that the evolutionary forces at work behind the diversity of chlamydiae are the result of a unique confluence of birth and death gene evolutionary cycles. In this cycle, new gene copies often arise by gene duplication, with the copies persisting or adapting