Chlamydia trachomatis

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Scientific classification

Description and significance

Chlamydia trachomatis is a pathogen that causes many serious health threats to humans. Chlamydia is one of the most common STD which is caused by chlamydia trachomatis. An estimated 4 million C. trachomatis infections occur annually among the sexually active population in the United States. The majority of persons with C. trachomatis infection are not aware of their infection because they do not have symptoms. The infection is easily cured if diagnosed, but many infections remain untreated and lead to other illnesses such as infertility in both men and women. Another disease caused by C. trachomatis is trachoma, most common cause of blindness among children in Africa and other developing nations.

Genome structure

The genome of Chlamydia trachomatis contains 1,042,519 base pairs of DNA encoding 938 genes.