title: Chlamydia genomics: providing novel insights into chlamydial biology.
abstract: Chlamydiaceae are obligate intracellular pathogens that have successfully evolved to colonize a diverse range of hosts. There are currently 11 described species of Chlamydia, most of which have a significant impact on the health of humans or animals. Expanding chlamydial genome sequence information has revolutionized our understanding of chlamydial biology, including aspects of their unique lifecycle, host-pathogen interactions, and genetic differences between Chlamydia strains associated with different host and tissue tropisms. This review summarizes the major highlights of chlamydial genomics and reflects on the considerable impact these have had on understanding the biology of chlamydial pathogens and the changing nature of genomics tools in the 'post-genomics' era.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, Queensland 4558, Australia.
authors.forename: Nathan L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Bachmann
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, Queensland 4558, Australia.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Polkinghorne
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, Queensland 4558, Australia. Electronic address: ptimms@usc.edu.au.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Timms
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002689:Chlamydia / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D023281:Genomics; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D006801:Humans
keywords: Chlamydia; genomics; host adaptation