CRISPR system acquisition and evolution of an obligate intracellular Chlamydia-related bacterium

Recently, a new Chlamydia-related organism, Protochlamydia naegleriophila KNic, was discovered within a Naegleria amoeba. To decipher the mechanisms at play in the modeling of genomes from the Protochlamydia genus, we sequenced de novo the full genome of Pr. naegleriophila combining the advantages of two second-generation sequencing technologies. The assembled complete genome comprises a 2,885,111 bp chromosome and a 145,285 bp megaplasmid. For the first time within the Chlamydiales order, a CRISPR system, the immune system of bacteria, was discovered on the chromosome. It is composed of a small CRISPR locus comprising eight repeats and the associated cas and cse genes of the subtype I-E. A CRISPR locus was also found within Chlamydia sp. Diamant, another Pr. naegleriophila strain whose genome was recently released, suggesting that the CRISPR system was acquired by a common ancestor of these two members of Pr. naegleriophila, after the divergence from Pr. amoebophila. The plasmid encodes an F-type conjugative system similar to that found in the Pam100G genomic island of Pr. amoebophila suggesting an acquisition of this conjugative system before the divergence of both Protochlamydia species and the integration of a putative Pr. amoebophila plasmid into its main chromosome giving rise to the Pam100G genomic island. Overall, this new Pr. naegleriophila genome sequence enables to investigate further the dynamic processes shaping the genomes of Chlamydia-related bacteria.