title: Structural comparison of O-antigen gene clusters of Legionella pneumophila and its application of a serogroup-specific multiplex PCR assay.
abstract: The Legionella pneumophila serogroups O1, O4, O6, O7, O10 and O13 are pathogenic strains associated with pneumonia. The surface O-antigen gene clusters of L. pneumophila serogroups O4, O6, O7, O10 and O13 were sequenced and analyzed, with the function annotated on the basis of homology to that of the genes of L. pneumophila serogroup O1 (L. pneumophila subsp. pneumophila str. Philadelphia 1). The gene locus of the six L. pneumophila serogroups contains genes of yvfE, neuABCD, pseA-like for nucleotide sugar biosynthesis, wecA for sugar transfer, and wzm as well as wzt for O-antigen processing. The detection of O-antigen genes allows the fine differentiation at species and serogroup level without the neccessity of nucleotide sequencing. The O-antigen-processing genes wzm and wzt, which were found to be distinctive for different for different serogroups, have been used as the target genes for the detection and identification of L. pneumophila strains of different O serogroups. In this report, a multiplex PCR assay based on wzm or wzt that diferentiates all the six serogroups by amplicon size was developed with the newly designed specific primer pairs for O1 and O7, and the specific primer pairs for O4, O6, O10, and O13 reported previously. The array was validated by analysis of 34 strains including 15 L. pneumophila O-standard reference strains, eight reference strains of other Legionella non-pneumophila species, six other bacterial species, and five L. pneumophila environmental isolates. The detection sensitivity was one ng genomic DNA. The accurate and sensitive assay is suitable for the identification and detection of strains of these serogroups in environmental and clinical samples.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology and Technology of the Ministry of Education, TEDA College, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300457, People's Republic of China. boyangcao@nankai.edu.cn.|TEDA Institue of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300457, People's Republic of China. boyangcao@nankai.edu.cn.|Tianjin Research Center for Functional Genomics and Biochips, TEDA College, Nankai University, Tianjin, People's Republic of China. boyangcao@nankai.edu.cn.|Tianjin Key Laboratory of Microbial Functional Genomics, TEDA College, Nankai University, Tianjin, People's Republic of China. boyangcao@nankai.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Boyang
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology and Technology of the Ministry of Education, TEDA College, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300457, People's Republic of China.|TEDA Institue of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300457, People's Republic of China.|Tianjin Research Center for Functional Genomics and Biochips, TEDA College, Nankai University, Tianjin, People's Republic of China.|Tianjin Key Laboratory of Microbial Functional Genomics, TEDA College, Nankai University, Tianjin, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhenyang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology and Technology of the Ministry of Education, TEDA College, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300457, People's Republic of China.|TEDA Institue of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300457, People's Republic of China.|Tianjin Research Center for Functional Genomics and Biochips, TEDA College, Nankai University, Tianjin, People's Republic of China.|Tianjin Key Laboratory of Microbial Functional Genomics, TEDA College, Nankai University, Tianjin, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Suwei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Basic Medical College, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, 300070, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhiyan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Research Center for Functional Genomics and Biochips, TEDA College, Nankai University, Tianjin, People's Republic of China.|Tianjin Key Laboratory of Microbial Functional Genomics, TEDA College, Nankai University, Tianjin, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yamin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology and Technology of the Ministry of Education, TEDA College, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300457, People's Republic of China.|TEDA Institue of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300457, People's Republic of China.|Tianjin Research Center for Functional Genomics and Biochips, TEDA College, Nankai University, Tianjin, People's Republic of China.|Tianjin Key Laboratory of Microbial Functional Genomics, TEDA College, Nankai University, Tianjin, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology and Technology of the Ministry of Education, TEDA College, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300457, People's Republic of China. wanglei@nankai.edu.cn.|TEDA Institue of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300457, People's Republic of China. wanglei@nankai.edu.cn.|Tianjin Research Center for Functional Genomics and Biochips, TEDA College, Nankai University, Tianjin, People's Republic of China. wanglei@nankai.edu.cn.|Tianjin Key Laboratory of Microbial Functional Genomics, TEDA College, Nankai University, Tianjin, People's Republic of China. wanglei@nankai.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D016952:Legionella pneumophila / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D025202:Molecular Diagnostic Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D058889:Molecular Typing / Q000379:methods*; D005810:Multigene Family; D060885:Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D019081:O Antigens / Q000235:genetics*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D065288:Serogroup
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D019081:O Antigens
keywords: Gene clusters; Legionella pneumophila; Multiplex PCR; O-antigen; Serogroups