The genetic diversity of Chlamydia pneumoniae and its implications for host and tissue specificity

Chlamydia pneumoniae is a wide spread human and animal pathogen, associated with a number of acute and chronic disease states. In this thesis, next-generation sequencing technologies were used to identify genetic markers involved in the diverse presentation of Chlamydia pneumoniae infections. The findings presented in this study describe a phylogenetically distinct human Chlamydia pneumoniae line, as well as a number of minor DNA sequence changes that may account for the biological fitness of particular strains to different diseases and animal hosts. The outcomes of this thesis have considerably expanded our knowledge of the genetic and evolutionary diversity of this common pathogen