Genomic heterogeneity differentiates clinical and environmental subgroups of Legionella pneumophila sequence type 1.

ABSTRACT: Legionella spp. are the cause of a severe bacterial pneumonia known as Legionnaires' disease (LD). In some cases, current genetic subtyping methods cannot resolve LD outbreaks caused by common, potentially endemic L. pneumophila (Lp) sequence types (ST), which complicates laboratory investigations and environmental source attribution. In the United States (US), ST1 is the most prevalent clinical and environmental Lp sequence type. In order to characterize the ST1 population, we sequenced 289 outbreak and non-outbreak associated clinical and environmental ST1 and ST1-variant Lp strains from the US and, together with international isolate sequences, explored their genetic and geographic diversity. The ST1 population was highly conserved at the nucleotide level; 98% of core nucleotide positio

SUBMITTER: Mercante JW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6193728 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature