{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,15]],"date-time":"2025-08-15T00:29:04Z","timestamp":1755217744073,"version":"3.43.0"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,5]],"date-time":"2025-08-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1754352000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000057","name":"National Institute of General Medical Sciences","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["AI099278"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["AI099278"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000057","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS One"],"abstract":"<jats:p><jats:italic><jats:italic>Chlamydia<\/jats:italic><\/jats:italic> are obligate intracellular bacterial pathogens that infect a wide range of vertebrate hosts. Despite having highly conserved genomes, closely related <jats:italic><jats:italic>Chlamydia<\/jats:italic><\/jats:italic> species can exhibit distinct host and tissue tropisms. The host tropisms of the human pathogen <jats:italic><jats:italic>Chlamydia trachomatis<\/jats:italic><\/jats:italic> and the closely related mouse pathogen <jats:italic><jats:italic>Chlamydia muridarum<\/jats:italic><\/jats:italic> are influenced by their ability to evade host immune responses, particularly those mediated by interferon gamma. However, there is evidence that tissue tropism is driven by additional poorly understood host and <jats:italic><jats:italic>Chlamydia<\/jats:italic><\/jats:italic> factors. In this study, we used a forward genetic approach to investigate the mechanisms that mediate <jats:italic><jats:italic>C. muridarum<\/jats:italic><\/jats:italic> tissue tropism. We conducted a tropism screen using a randomly mutagenized <jats:italic><jats:italic>C. muridarum<\/jats:italic><\/jats:italic> library and murine cell lines representing different tissues. We identified a mutant isolate whose growth was restricted in murine rectal and oviduct epithelial cells in an interferon gamma-independent manner. This phenotype was mapped to a missense mutation in <jats:italic><jats:italic>tc0237<\/jats:italic><\/jats:italic>, a gene that mediates the affinity of <jats:italic><jats:italic>C. muridarum<\/jats:italic><\/jats:italic> for cultured human epithelial cells. Our analysis of growth dynamics showed that the <jats:italic><jats:italic>tc0237<\/jats:italic><\/jats:italic> mutant exhibits a developmental delay in rectal epithelial cells. Together, these results suggest that TC0237 plays a role in <jats:italic><jats:italic>C. muridarum<\/jats:italic><\/jats:italic> tissue tropism.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0329637","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,5]],"date-time":"2025-08-05T17:23:33Z","timestamp":1754414613000},"page":"e0329637","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Isolation and characterization of a Chlamydia muridarum tc0237 mutant from a genetic screen that is attenuated in epithelial cells"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"20","author":[{"given":"Kaylee R.","family":"Jacobs","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Caleb 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