Free-living amoebae are described as potential reservoirs for pathogenic bacteria in the environment. It has been hypothesized that this might be the case for Mycobacterium avium subsp. In a previous work, we isolated an amoeba from a water sample in the environment of infected cattle and showed that this amoeba was associated with Mycobacterium avium subsp. While a partial 18S rRNA gene has allowed us to suggest that this amoeba was Rosculus -like, at that time we were not able to sub-cultivate it.
The sequencing of the whole genome allowed us to extract the full 18S rRNA gene and propose this strain as a new species of the Rosculus genus, i. Finally, we showed that this amoeba was able to phagocyte Mycobacterium avium subsp.
In conclusion, we characterized a new environmental amoeba species at the cellular and genome level that was able to interact with Mycobacterium avium subsp. As a result, R. These protists share common morphological features, notably pseudopods that allow them to move upon surfaces and to thrive by phagocytosis.
FLA constitutes a highly polyphyletic group of microbial eukaryotes and can be affiliated not only to Amoebozoa, the sole supergroup exclusively represented by amoeboid microorganisms, but also to Opisthokonta, Heterolobosea and Rhizaria.
Among those three large eukaryotic groups, FLA consist mostly in small clades of amoebae, featuring a varied array of cell morphologies Bass et al. Among Rhizaria, the most notorious amoebae representatives are Vampyrellids, a group of predatory amoebae found in freshwater and marine environments.
