Emergence of Novel Chlamydia trachomatis Sequence Types among Chlamydia Patients in the Republic of Belarus

Abstract

Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) is a major cause of sexually transmitted diseases worldwide. The multilocus sequence typing (MLST) of clinical samples from random heterosexual chlamydia patients who were either asymptomatic or reported clinical manifestations of genital chlamydiosis (n = 63) in each of the seven major regions of the Republic of Belarus in 2017–2018 revealed 12 different CT sequence types (STs). We found seven known STs, ST4, ST6, ST9, ST13, ST38, ST95 and ST110, and five novel variants, namely ST271–ST275, which have not been detected elsewhere thus far. The ST4 variant was predominant (27/63, 42.9%) and detected in six out of seven regions. The two most common STs, ST9 and ST13, were regularly seen in four out of seven regions. In contrast, the remaining STs, ST6, ST38, ST95, ST110, and novel STs271-275, surfaced randomly in different parts of the country. The emergence of novel STs was registered in two regions, namely Minsk (ST271 and ST275) and Brest (ST271, ST272, ST273, and ST274). All the STs of detected CT strains were clustered into two Groups, I and III, which are characteristic of CT urogenital strains. No STs typical for Group II, specific to the LGV strains, were revealed. Our study contributes to better understanding the genetic diversity and molecular evolution of CT, one of the most important pathogens in public health worldwide.

Prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis Sequence Types 4 and 80 in Infertile Couples in North Khorasan, Iran

“…Feodorova et al (2022) in their study on random samples of heterosexual males and females in Belarus found 12 sequence types, of which seven were common, and five were new. Most of their participants were asymptomatic, whereas in the present study, aside from infertility, 65.9% of patients exhibited other symptoms, especially in the urogenital tract [24] . Also, in another study, Thapa et al (2020) reported a wide variety of sequence types in C. trachomatis isolates detected in endocervical samples of young women in Japan.…”

“…Several MLST schemes have been developed for C. trachomatis, employing PCR amplification and DNA sequencing of five to seven specific genomic loci linked to the chlamydial genome. Among these schemes, the scheme presented by Pannekoek et al (2008) [7] , which employs seven molecular targets, has gained recognition as the preferred option for worldwide epidemiological studies and tracking the molecular evolution of C. trachomatis [24] . This MLST approach encompasses asymptomatic individuals and couples infected with either the wild type of C. trachomatis or the novel variant [8,25] .…”

“…This MLST approach encompasses asymptomatic individuals and couples infected with either the wild type of C. trachomatis or the novel variant [8,25] . Significantly, implementing this MLST approach leads to the classification of C. trachomatis (CT) into three distinct sequence type (ST) groups: Groups I, II, and III [24] . Notably, in Pannekoek et al's (2008) study, urogenital CT strains were assigned to Groups I and III, while LGV strains formed Group II [7] .…”

Whole Genome Sequencing of a Chlamydia trachomatis Strain Responsible for a Case of Rectal Lymphogranuloma Venereum in Italy

“…Multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) has become a useful tool for studying the genetic diversity of important public health pathogens, leading to improvements in the monitoring and molecular epidemiology of C. trachomatis infections [ 23 , 24 ]. Several MLST-like systems able to identify LGV strains have been previously proposed, but none of them has been broadly adopted by the scientific community [ 25 , 26 , 27 ].…”

Development of a Lateral Flow Strip-Based Recombinase-Aided Amplification for Active Chlamydia psittaci Infection

“…For Chlamydia spp. detection, urethral swabs, choanal cleft swabs, pharyngeal swab, and cloacal swabs from animals or human are often used for DNA extraction and testing ( Holland et al, 1990 ; Dumke et al, 2015 ; Mina et al, 2019 ; Feodorova et al, 2022 ). One route of transmission of C. psittaci is a inhalation of aerosolized bird feces from the environment ( Szeredi et al, 2005 ), and fresh feces samples from animals are also used for detection of C. psittaci ( Takashima et al, 1996 ; Sachse et al, 2012 ; McGovern et al, 2021 ).…”