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L. pneumophila is a motile, rod-shaped, gram-negative, aerobic, bacterium. It is considered to be a "facultative pathogen (or bacterium)", which in the last twenty years has been identified as the leading cause of "Legionnaire's Disease". This disease was first discovered in 1976 among a group of elderly men attending an American Legion Convention in Philadelphia, hence the name Legionnaire's Disease.
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Atypical pneumonia
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Model for the Legionella pneumophila pathway in macrophages.
After being engulfed within coiled phagosomes, post-exponential-phase bacteria establish a vacuole that does not acidify or interact with the endosomal pathway, but is surrounded by endoplasmic reticulum. Within this protected vacuole, bacteria convert to an acid-tolerant, replicative form and no longer express virulence factors. Consequently, vacuoles merge with the lysosomal compartment, an acidic, nutrient-rich replication niche. Once the local amino acid supply is depleted, the progeny convert to the virulent form, expressing factors to escape the spent host, survive and disperse in the environment, and establish a protected replication niche in another phagocyte. (Annu. Rev. Microbiol. (2000))
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1: Virulence Factors of Pathogenic Bacteria - Legionella
2: http://s99.middlebury.edu/BI330A/projects/Cocchiaro/
3: CDC - Legionellosis
4: Columbia Genome Center, U.S.A - Legionella Genome Project
5: Wikipedia - Legionella pneumophila
6: EBI > 2Can > Karyn's Genomes > Legionella pneumophila |
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| 1: Annu. Rev. Microbiol. (2000) 54, 567-613. |
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Legionella pneumophila
