Population analysis of Legionella pneumophila reveals a basis for resistance to complement-mediated killing.

ABSTRACT: Legionella pneumophila is the most common cause of the severe respiratory infection known as Legionnaires' disease. However, the microorganism is typically a symbiont of free-living amoeba, and our understanding of the bacterial factors that determine human pathogenicity is limited. Here we carried out a population genomic study of 902 L. pneumophila isolates from human clinical and environmental samples to examine their genetic diversity, global distribution and the basis for human pathogenicity. We find that the capacity for human disease is representative of the breadth of species diversity although some clones are more commonly associated with clinical infections. We identified a single gene (lag-1) to be most strongly associated with clinical isolates. lag-1, which encodes an O-acetyl

SUBMITTER: Wee BA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8660822 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature