title: Sequence types diversity of Legionella pneumophila isolates from environmental water sources in Guangzhou and Jiangmen, China.
abstract: In this study, 159 Legionella pneumophila strains isolated from various natural and artificial water sources in Guangzhou and Jiangmen, China, were subjected to genotyping by the sequence-based typing (SBT) scheme. These isolates were assigned into 53 sequence types (STs) (50 STs with seven loci data and three unidentified STs with incomplete loci profiles) with ST1 as the dominant one (14.5%), and the index of diversity (IOD) was 0.950. Eight new alleles and 34 new STs were reported here. Notably, most of the newly identified STs with seven loci data (24/34) contained no new allele, implying frequent recombination events in L. pneumophila. Five intragenic recombination events were identified in the concatenated sequences of seven loci. The diversity of STs in natural environmental isolates (41 STs, IOD=0.956) is higher than that of artificial environmental ones (17 STs, IOD=0.824). The ST patterns varied in isolates from these two sources: the most common STs from artificial water sources, ST1 and ST752 (39.2% and 13.7%), were only occasionally isolated from natural water sources (2.9% and 3.8%, respectively); while the predominant STs from natural water sources, ST1048, ST739 and ST1267 (15.2%, 6.7% and 6.7%), were less frequently seen in artificial environments (2.0%, 0% and 0%, respectively). We also found out that Legionnaires' disease associated STs might be more frequently isolated in artificial environments than in natural ones. Our data revealed remarkable genetic diversity of L. pneumophila isolates from environmental water systems of Guangzhou and Jiangmen, and the different ST distribution patterns between natural water and artificial water sources as well.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, China; Guanzhou Kingmed Centers for Clinical Laboratory, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Jingyu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, China; Department of Microbiology, Liaoning University, Shenyang, China.
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Guanzhou Kingmed Centers for Clinical Laboratory, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Chaohui
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Ruichen
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xianwei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yujun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Liaoning University, Shenyang, China.
authors.forename: Youtao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Ruifu
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Guanzhou Kingmed Centers for Clinical Laboratory, Guangzhou, China. Electronic address: zqy@kingmed.com.cn.
authors.forename: Qingyi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, China. Electronic address: songyajun88@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Yajun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Song
mesh_terms: D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D016952:Legionella pneumophila / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D060985:Natural Springs / Q000382:microbiology; D014871:Water Microbiology
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial
keywords: Legionella pneumophila; Recombination; Sequence-based typing