Articles of Significant Interest in This Issue

Abstract

An important step in the developmental cycle of the pathogenic bacterium Chlamydia is the conversion from a replicating to an infectious form inside a host cell. Zhang et al. (e00793-19) provide new insights into how the timing of this conversion is controlled through EUO, a regulator of late gene expression. Using in vitro approaches and infection with deletion strains, they showed that a plasmid-encoded protein, Pgp4, modulates the ability of EUO to repress late genes and could alter the timing of conversion. These findings suggest that the plasmid may have a role in controlling the developmental cycle in Chlamydia.