Extensive epigenetic modification with large-scale chromosomal and plasmid recombination characterise the Legionella longbeachae serogroup 1 genome.

ABSTRACT: Legionella longbeachae is an environmental bacterium that is the most clinically significant Legionella species in New Zealand (NZ), causing around two-thirds of all notified cases of Legionnaires' disease. Here we report the sequencing and analysis of the geo-temporal genetic diversity of 54 L. longbeachae serogroup 1 (sg1) clinical isolates, derived from cases from around NZ over a 22-year period, including one complete genome and its associated methylome. The 54 sg1 isolates belonged to two main clades that last shared a common ancestor between 95 BCE and 1694 CE. There was diversity at the genome-structural level, with large-scale arrangements occurring in some regions of the chromosome and evidence of extensive chromosomal and plasmid recombination. This includes the presence of plasm

SUBMITTER: Slow S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8987031 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature