title: Geographical and Temporal Structures of Legionella pneumophila Sequence Types in Comunitat Valenciana (Spain), 1998 to 2013.
abstract: Legionella pneumophila is an accidental human pathogen associated with aerosol formation in water-related sources. High recombination rates make Legionella populations genetically diverse, and nearly 2,000 different sequence types (STs) have been described to date for this environmental pathogen. The spatial distribution of STs is extremely heterogeneous, with some variants being present worldwide and others being detected at only a local scale. Similarly, some STs have been associated with disease outbreaks, such as ST578 or ST23. Spain is among the European countries with the highest incidences of reported legionellosis cases, and specifically, Comunitat Valenciana (CV) is the second most affected area in the country. In this work, we aimed at studying the overall diversity of Legionella pneumophila populations found in the period from 1998 to 2013 in 79 localities encompassing 23 regions within CV. To do so, we performed sequence-based typing (SBT) on 1,088 L. pneumophila strains detected in the area from both environmental and clinical sources. A comparison with the genetic structuring detected in a global data set that included 20 European and 7 non-European countries was performed. Our results reveal a level of diversity in CV that can be considered representative of the diversity found in other countries worldwide.
authors.affiliation: Joint Research Unit Infección y Salud, FISABIO-Universidad de Valencia, Instituto Cavanilles de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva, Valencia, Spain CIBER en Epidemiología y Salud Pública, Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: Leonor
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sánchez-Busó
authors.affiliation: Joint Research Unit Infección y Salud, FISABIO-Universidad de Valencia, Instituto Cavanilles de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva, Valencia, Spain Medical Parasitology and Infection Biology, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Mireia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Coscollà
authors.affiliation: Joint Research Unit Infección y Salud, FISABIO-Universidad de Valencia, Instituto Cavanilles de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva, Valencia, Spain INRA, University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, CNRS, UMR 1355-7254 Institut Sophia Agrobiotech, Sophia Antipolis, France.
authors.forename: Ferran
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Palero
authors.affiliation: Public Health Laboratory, Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: María Luisa
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Camaró
authors.affiliation: Public Health Laboratory, Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gimeno
authors.affiliation: Centro de Salud Pública de Alcoy, Alcoy, Spain.
authors.forename: Pilar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Moreno
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Microbiología, Hospital Virgen de los Lírios, Alcoy, Spain.
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Escribano
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Microbiología, Hospital Marina Baixa, La Vila Joiosa, Spain.
authors.forename: María Mar
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: López Perezagua
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Microbiología, Hospital Alzira, Alzira, Spain.
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Colomina
authors.affiliation: Joint Research Unit Infección y Salud, FISABIO-Universidad de Valencia, Instituto Cavanilles de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva, Valencia, Spain DGSP, Subdirección de Epidemiología y Vigilancia de la Salud, Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: Herme
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Vanaclocha
authors.affiliation: Joint Research Unit Infección y Salud, FISABIO-Universidad de Valencia, Instituto Cavanilles de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva, Valencia, Spain CIBER en Epidemiología y Salud Pública, Valencia, Spain fernando.gonzalez@uv.es.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0879-5798
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: González-Candelas
mesh_terms: D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D016952:Legionella pneumophila / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D007877:Legionnaires' Disease / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D058889:Molecular Typing; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D062211:Spatio-Temporal Analysis
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial