Host-Specific Adaptation of Legionella pneumophila to Single and Multiple Hosts.

ABSTRACT: Legionella pneumophila is an endosymbiotic bacterial species able to infect and reproduce in various protist and human hosts. Upon entry into human lungs, they may infect lung macrophages, causing Legionnaires' disease (LD), an atypical pneumonia, using similar mechanisms as in their protozoan hosts, despite the 2 hosts being separated by a billion years of evolution. In this study, we used experimental evolution to identify genes conferring host specificity to L. pneumophila. To this end, we passaged L. pneumophila in 2 different hosts-Acanthamoeba castellanii and the human macrophage-like cells U937-separately and by switching between the hosts twice a week for a year. In total, we identified 1,518 mutations present in at least 5% of the population at the time of sampling. Forty-nine mut

SUBMITTER: Moreno AB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12308824 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature