Horn M, Wagner M
Lehrstuhl für Mikrobiologie, Technische Universität München, Am Hochanger 4, D-85350 Freising, Germany.
FEMS Microbiol Lett. 2001 Oct 16;204(1):71-4. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6968.2001.tb10865.x.
The medically important order Chlamydiales has long been considered to contain a few closely related bacteria which occur exclusively in animals and humans. This perception of diversity and habitat had to be revised with the recent identification of the genera Simkania, Waddlia, Parachlamydia, and Neochlamydia with the latter two comprising endosymbionts of amoebae. Application of a newly developed PCR assay for the specific amplification of a near full length 16S rDNA fragment of these novel Chlamydia-related bacteria on activated sludge samples revealed the existence of at least four additional, previously unknown evolutionary lineages of Chlamydiales (each showing less than 92% 16S rRNA sequence similarity with all recognized members of this order). These findings suggest that some waste water treatment plants represent reservoirs for a diverse assemblage of environmental chlamydiae, a discovery which might also be of relevance from the viewpoint of human public health.
长期以来，医学上重要的衣原体目一直被认为只包含少数几种密切相关的细菌，这些细菌仅存在于动物和人类中。随着最近对西曼卡尼亚属、沃德里亚属、副衣原体属和新衣原体属的鉴定，这种对多样性和栖息地的认识不得不加以修正，后两个属包括变形虫的内共生体。应用一种新开发的聚合酶链反应（PCR）检测方法，对活性污泥样本中这些新型衣原体相关细菌的近全长16S核糖体DNA（rDNA）片段进行特异性扩增，结果显示衣原体目至少还存在另外四个以前未知的进化谱系（每个谱系与该目所有已确认成员的16S核糖体RNA序列相似性均低于92%）。这些发现表明，一些污水处理厂是多种环境衣原体的储存库，从人类公共卫生的角度来看，这一发现可能也具有相关性。
