A Refined Developmental Transcriptomic Landscape Reveals Four Coordinated Programs in Chlamydia trachomatis
- 1Rutgers University Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Abstract
The developmental cycle of Chlamydia trachomatis requires coordinated transitions between infectious elementary bodies (EBs) and replicative reticulate bodies (RBs), yet the temporal organization of the underlying transcriptional programs remains incompletely resolved. We performed high-coverage RNA sequencing from 0 to 32 h post-infection (hpi), with closely spaced early sampling, and used unsupervised clustering of temporal expression profiles to identify four coordinated programs: immediate-early host adaptation and developmental program, RB formation and maintenance, RB proliferation and secondary differentiation, and EB formation and invasion. The immediate-early program peaked at 1 hpi and contained a strong representation of inclusion-membrane and intracellular-trafficking genes, together with the developmental regulator gene euo. The RB formation and maintenance program peaked at approximately 3 hpi and sustained expression throughout much of the cycle, encompassing genes that support transcription, translation, and core metabolism. The RB proliferation and secondary differentiation program combined DNA replication and cell-division genes with alternative sigma factors, partner-switching components, and type III secretion apparatus genes, consistent with developmental preparation during proliferation. The EB formation and invasion program contained genes associated with structural maturation, host-cell interaction, and infectious competence. These findings distinguish transient host-adaptation expression from sustained early biosynthetic expression, separate RB establishment from population expansion, and differentiate regulatory preparation for the RB-to-EB transition from later EB maturation. Together, the four programs define partially overlapping transcriptional priorities that provide a framework for investigating how gene expression coordinates chlamydial growth, differentiation, and preparation for the next infection cycle.
Related
- Sphingolipids associate with the chlamydial nucleoid and mark developmental transitions in Chlamydia trachomatis
- Pkn1 kinase is a critical regulator of cell division in Chlamydia trachomatis
- Chlamydia trachomatis Incidence in Relation to Vaginal Microbiota Dynamics, Immunogenetics and Exposures in a Cohort of Young Student Women in France
- Chlamydia trachomatis highjacks host MYO1C for actin cage recruitment at the bacterial inclusion
- Interlaboratory comparison of a multiplex bead assay against the Chlamydia trachomatis antigen Pgp3 using two monoclonal antibody clones
BibTeX
@misc{wan2026refined,
title = {{A Refined Developmental Transcriptomic Landscape Reveals Four Coordinated Programs in Chlamydia trachomatis}},
author = {D. Wan and W. Wurihan and Z. Lai and G. Zhong and H. Fan},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.15.751914},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.15.751914v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A Refined Developmental Transcriptomic Landscape Reveals Four Coordinated Programs in Chlamydia trachomatis
AU - D. Wan
AU - W. Wurihan
AU - Z. Lai
AU - G. Zhong
AU - H. Fan
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/15
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.15.751914
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.15.751914v1
AB - The developmental cycle of Chlamydia trachomatis requires coordinated transitions between infectious elementary bodies (EBs) and replicative reticulate bodies (RBs), yet the temporal organization of the underlying transcriptional programs remains incompletely resolved. We performed high-coverage RNA sequencing from 0 to 32 h post-infection (hpi), with closely spaced early sampling, and used unsupervised clustering of temporal expression profiles to identify four coordinated programs: immediate-early host adaptation and developmental program, RB formation and maintenance, RB proliferation and secondary differentiation, and EB formation and invasion. The immediate-early program peaked at 1 hpi and contained a strong representation of inclusion-membrane and intracellular-trafficking genes, together with the developmental regulator gene euo. The RB formation and maintenance program peaked at approximately 3 hpi and sustained expression throughout much of the cycle, encompassing genes that support transcription, translation, and core metabolism. The RB proliferation and secondary differentiation program combined DNA replication and cell-division genes with alternative sigma factors, partner-switching components, and type III secretion apparatus genes, consistent with developmental preparation during proliferation. The EB formation and invasion program contained genes associated with structural maturation, host-cell interaction, and infectious competence. These findings distinguish transient host-adaptation expression from sustained early biosynthetic expression, separate RB establishment from population expansion, and differentiate regulatory preparation for the RB-to-EB transition from later EB maturation. Together, the four programs define partially overlapping transcriptional priorities that provide a framework for investigating how gene expression coordinates chlamydial growth, differentiation, and preparation for the next infection cycle.
ER -