| Resumo: |
The US CDC believes that 65% of all infections in developed countries may be caused by pathogens in biofilms. Electron Microscopy has shown that these bacterial communities can evade phagocytosis, and persist in the cytoplasm of monocytes, macrophages, lymphocytes and neutrophils. Three decades ago, Wirostko _et al._ found such intraphagocytic communities in Crohn’s disease, Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis and Sarcoidosis. However, the mechanism(s) by which such persistent bacteria could evade the immune system have remained elusive. Recently, 16S RNA from species of gliding bacteria never thought to be able to survive _in vivo_, have been found in surgically removed biofilms. This study set out to identify whether the genomes of these gliding bacteria might yield insight into mechanisms by which such persistent pathogens could evade phagocytosis.
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