Abstract
Agathe Subtil is one of the leading scientists in the field of molecular genetics and chronic intracellular infection by Chlamydia trachomatis. This genome-reduced bacterium, which has lost many of its metabolic functions, has become an obligatory intracellular parasite, totally subjugated to human cells. It is only recently that it has begun to be genetically manipulated, a change of scale in the ability to analyze pathophysiological processes. The bacterium undergoes a genuine developmental process within cytoplasmic vesicles, evolving from an elementary corpuscle to a reticulated corpuscle. This evolutionary process is closely linked to Chlamydia's ability to hijack important metabolic functions in the host cell, particularly amino acids, lipids and complex sugars. Agathe Subtil's current work focuses on identifying the functions of the multiple effectors secreted into the cell cytosol from vesicles by microbial corpuscles. Some affect the dynamics of cell organelle movement, others may even affect epigenetic control of host cell transcriptional activity.
