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

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

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

VOLUME=7

YEAR=2017

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-and-infection-microbiology/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2017.00385

DOI=10.3389/fcimb.2017.00385

ISSN=2235-2988

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