Developmental Cycle and Genome Analysis of Protochlamydia massiliensis sp. nov. a New Species in the Parachlamydiacae Family

• Main Authors: Samia Benamar, Jacques Y. Bou Khalil, Caroline Blanc-Tailleur, Melhem Bilen, Lina Barrassi, Bernard La Scola
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2017-08-01
• Series: Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology
• Subjects: Chlamydiae; Vermamoeba vermiformis; co-culture; CRISPR; Protochlamydia massiliensis
• Online Access: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fcimb.2017.00385/full

Amoeba-associated microorganisms (AAMs) are frequently isolated from water networks. In this paper, we report the isolation and characterization of Protochlamydia massiliensis, an obligate intracellular Gram-negative bacterium belonging to the Parachlamydiaceae family in the Chlamydiales order, from a cooling water tower. This bacterium was isolated on Vermamoeba vermiformis. It has a multiple range of hosts among amoeba and is characterized by a typical replication cycle of Chlamydiae with a particularity, recently shown in some chlamydia, which is the absence of inclusion vacuoles in the V. vermiformis host, adding by this a new member of Chlamydiae undergoing developmental cycle changes in the newly adapted host V. vermiformis. Draft genome sequencing revealed a chromosome of 2.86 Mb consisting of four contigs and a plasmid of 92 Kb.