Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology (Aug 2017)

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

  • Samia Benamar,
  • Jacques Y. Bou Khalil,
  • Caroline Blanc-Tailleur,
  • Melhem Bilen,
  • Lina Barrassi,
  • Bernard La Scola

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2017.00385
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7

Abstract

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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.

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