A New Chlamydia, Simkania negevensis Z

A new human Chlamydia species has been discovered in Israel. It has been implicated in pneumonia in young adults, and acute bronchiolitis in children. Antibodies to this organism have been found in 55-80% of presumably healthy adults in the region. So far, there does not appear to be any investigation of a potential role in chronic respiratory or other disease.

Description and partial characterization of a new Chlamydia-like microorganism. S Kahane, R Gonen, C Sayada, J Elion, MG Friedman. FEMS Microbiol Lett 1993 May 15;109(2-3):329-333.

Pneumonia with serological evidence of acute infection with the Chlamydia-like microorganism "Z". D Lieberman, S Kahane, MG Friedman. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 1997;156(2):578-582. "We conclude that the microorganism "Z", or a close variant of it, can infect human beings, with one of the clinical manifestations of this infection being CAP [community acquired pneumonia]. The disease caused by this infection is relatively mild, produces gastrointestinal symptoms, and responds well to treatment with erythromycin."

High prevalence of "Simkania Z," a novel Chlamydia-like bacterium, in infants with acute bronchiolitis. S Kahane, D Greenberg, MG Friedman, H Haikin, R Dagan. J Infect Dis 1998 May;177(5):1425-1429.

Seroprevalence of IgG antibodies to the chlamydia-like microorganism "Simkania Z" by ELISA. MG Friedman, A Galil, S Greenberg, S Kahane. Epidemiol Infect 1999 Feb;122(1):117-123.

Molecular evidence for the existence of additional members of the order Chlamydiales. JM Ossewaarde, A Meijer. Microbiology 1999 Feb;145(Pt 2):411-417.

Emended description of the order Chlamydiales, proposal of Parachlamydiaceae fam. nov. and Simkaniaceae fam. nov., each containing one monotypic genus, revised taxonomy of the family Chlamydiaceae, including a new genus and five new species, and standards for the identification of organisms. KD Everett, RM Bush, AA Andersen. Int J Syst Bacteriol 1999 Apr;49 Pt 2:415-440.

Simkania negevensis strain ZT: growth, antigenic and genome characteristics. S Kahane, KD Everett, N Kimmel, MG Friedman. Int J Syst Bacteriol 1999 Apr;49 Pt 2:815-820.

An unspliced group I intron in 23S rRNA links Chlamydiales, chloroplasts, and mitochondria. KD Everett, S Kahane, RM Bush, MG Friedman. J Bacteriol 1999 Aug;181(16):4734-4740.

Infection of Acanthamoeba polyphaga with Simkania negevensis and S. negevensis survival within amoebal cysts. S Kahane, B Dvoskin, M Mathias, MG Friedman. Appl Environ Microbiol 2001 Oct;67(10):4789-4795. "The possibility that amoeba may have a role in natural transmission of S. negevensis needs to be investigated."

Evidence for additional genus-level diversity of Chlamydiales in the environment. M Horn, M Wagner. FEMS Microbiol Lett 2001 Oct 16;204(1):71-74. They found "at least four additional, previously unknown evolutionary lineages of Chlamydiales" in sewage treatment sludge, "a discovery which might also be of relevance from the viewpoint of human public health."

cast 11-07-03