Chlamydia trachomatis

Chlamydia trachomatis
Chlamydia trachomatis in brown
Scientific classification
Domain:	Bacteria
Phylum:	Chlamydiota
Class:	Chlamydiia
Order:	Chlamydiales
Family:	Chlamydiaceae
Genus:	Chlamydia
Species:	C. trachomatis
Binomial name
Chlamydia trachomatis (Busacca 1935) Rake 1957 emend. Everett et al. 1999[1]
Synonyms
Rickettsia trachomae [sic] Busacca 1935 Rickettsia trachomatis (Busacca 1935) Foley and Parrot 1937 Chlamydozoon trachomatis (Busacca 1935) Moshkovski 1945

Chlamydia trachomatis (/kləˈmɪdiə trəˈkoʊmətɪs/), commonly known as chlamydia,^[2] is a bacterium that causes chlamydia, which can manifest in various ways, including: trachoma, lymphogranuloma venereum, nongonococcal urethritis, cervicitis, salpingitis, pelvic inflammatory disease. C. trachomatis is the most common infectious cause of blindness and the most common sexually transmitted bacterium.^[3]

Different types of C. trachomatis cause different diseases. The most common strains cause disease in the genital tract, while other strains cause disease in the eye or lymph nodes. Like other Chlamydia species, the C. trachomatis life cycle consists of two morphologically distinct life stages: elementary bodies and reticulate bodies. Elementary bodies are spore-like and infectious, whereas reticulate bodies are in the replicative stage and are seen only within host cells.