Legionella pneumophila and Free-Living Nematodes: Environmental Co-Occurrence and Trophic Link.

ABSTRACT: Free-living nematodes harbor and disseminate various soil-borne bacterial pathogens. Whether they function as vectors or environmental reservoirs for the aquatic L. pneumophila, the causative agent of Legionnaires' disease, is unknown. A survey screening of biofilms of natural (swimming lakes) and technical (cooling towers) water habitats in Germany revealed that nematodes can act as potential reservoirs, vectors or grazers of L. pneumophila in cooling towers. Consequently, the nematode species Plectus similis and L. pneumophila were isolated from the same cooling tower biofilm and taken into a monoxenic culture. Using pharyngeal pumping assays, potential feeding relationships between P. similis and different L. pneumophila strains and mutants were

SUBMITTER: Hemmerling C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10056204 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature