Genomic characterization and assessment of pathogenic potential of Legionella spp. isolates from environmental monitoring
Journal article, 2023

Several species in the genus Legionella are known to cause an acute pneumonia when the aerosols containing the bacteria from man-made water systems are inhaled. The disease is usually caused by Legionella pneumophila, but other species have been implicated in the infection. The disease is frequently manifested as an outbreak, which means several people are affected when exposed to the common source of Legionella contamination. Therefor environmental surveillance which includes isolation and identification of Legionella is performed routinely. However, usually no molecular or genome-based methods are employed in further characterization of the isolates during routine environmental monitoring. During several years of such monitoring, isolates from different geographical locations were collected and 39 of them were sequenced by hybrid de novo approach utilizing short and long sequencing reads. In addition, the isolates were typed by standard culture and MALDI-TOF method. The sequencing reads were assembled and annotated to produce high-quality genomes. By employing discriminatory genome typing, four potential new species in the Legionella genus were identified, which are yet to be biochemically and morphologically characterized. Moreover, functional annotations concerning virulence and antimicrobial resistance were performed on the sequenced genomes. The study contributes to the knowledge on little-known non-pneumophila species present in man-made water systems and establishes support for future genetic relatedness studies as well as understanding of their pathogenic potential.

environmental monitoring

Legionella

whole-genome sequencing

virulence factors

novel species

Author

Ema Svetlicic

Technical University of Denmark (DTU)

Daniel Jaén-Luchoro

University of Gothenburg

Roberta Sauerborn Klobucar

PathCon Laboratories EU

C. Jers

Technical University of Denmark (DTU)

Snjezana Kazazic

Ruder Boskovic Institute

D. Franjevic

University of Zagreb

Goran Klobucar

University of Zagreb

Brian G. Shelton

PathCon Laboratories EU

Ivan Mijakovic

Chalmers, Life Sciences, Systems and Synthetic Biology

Technical University of Denmark (DTU)

Frontiers in Microbiology

1664302x (eISSN)

Vol. 13 1091964

Subject Categories

Microbiology

Microbiology in the medical area

DOI

10.3389/fmicb.2022.1091964

PubMed

36713227

More information

Latest update

2/8/2023 1