Differences in Virulence Between Legionella pneumophila Isolates From Human and Non-human Sources Determined in Galleria mellonella Infection Model.

ABSTRACT: Legionella pneumophila is a ubiquitous bacterium in freshwater environments and in many man-made water systems capable of inducing pneumonia in humans. Despite its ubiquitous character most studies on L. pneumophila virulence focused on clinical strains and isolates from man-made environments, so little is known about the nature and extent of virulence variation in strains isolated from natural environments. It has been established that clinical isolates are less diverse than man-made and natural environmental strains, suggesting that only a subset of environmental isolates is specially adapted to infect humans. In this work we intended to determine if unrelated L. pneumophila strains, isolated from different environments and with distinct virulence-related genetic bac

SUBMITTER: Sousa PS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5893783 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature