Morphological studies of the association of mitochondria with chlamydial inclusions and the fusion of chlamydial inclusions.

The association of mitochondria with the inclusions of five strains of Chlamydia psittaci, two strains of C. trachomatis and one strain of C. pneumoniae was examined by electron microscopy. The results demonstrated that mitochondrial association occurred only with the C. psittaci inclusions, but not with the C. trachomatis and C. pneumoniae inclusions. Multiple inclusions formed by infection with a single strain could fuse with each other during their expansion, but fusion never occurred between the C. trachomatis and C. psittaci inclusions as a result of dual infection with these different species.