The life cycle of the genus Chlamydia involves two distinct stages inside a host. It begins when infectious, spore-like spheres called elementary bodies infect an epithelial cell. Within ${}12$ hours, these elementary bodies transform into active reticulate bodies, which multiply by division inside the host cell, forming inclusion bodies by ${}24$ hours. Over the next ${}48$ hours, these reticulate bodies reorganize back into elementary bodies, which are released when the host cell ruptures at ${}72$ hours.