Reply to Rockey et al., "Genomics and Chlamydial Persistence In Vivo ".

We read with interest the recent paper by Somboonna and colleagues, addressing changes to tryptophan synthase in a single Chlamydia trachomatis strain that had an aberrant growth phenotype in vitro (1). This strain was isolated four times, over 4 years, from a patient who was apparently persistently infected. This strain was highly related to a serovar F strain isolated previously in their clinical setting. The authors use these strains to defend an association between in vivo persistence and a particular mutation at the 3′ end of the …