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Query: UMLS:C0023241 (Legionella)
6,990 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The presence of a single apparently cryptic plasmid of approximately 36 MDa was demonstrated in the virulent Dodge strain of Legionella pneumophila. 'Tagging' of the plasmid with Tn5 enabled transfer to be demonstrated to other strains of Legionella (though not to Escherichia coli or Pseudomonas aeruginosa) as well as a definitive assessment to be made of its stability. Plasmid carriage confers resistance to UV light probably by means of an error-prone UV repair system. The plasmid is compatible with plasmids of the IncP and IncW incompatibility groups.
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PMID:A plasmid from a virulent strain of Legionella pneumophila is conjugative and confers resistance to ultraviolet light. 178 81

In a previous study, all convalescent-phase sera from patients with culture-confirmed legionellosis reacted on immunoblots with a Legionella genus-wide 58-kilodalton (kDa) protein antigen (J.S. Sampson, B.B. Plikaytis, and H.W. Wilkinson, J. Clin. Microbiol. 23:92-99, 1986). The present study was done to immunologically characterize and determine the diagnostic relevance of this purified antigen. The antigen was precipitated from enriched cell extracts with ammonium sulfate and purified by high-pressure liquid chromatography. High-titered rabbit antiserum produced to the purified protein was used to show its presence on immunoblots in the 60-kDa range in 38 Legionella serogroups, representing 23 species, and in 39 non-Legionella bacteria. The antiserum was made specific for Legionella strains by sequential absorptions with Bordetella pertussis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Pseudomonas fluorescens whole cells. Serum from legionellosis patients reacted with both specific and nonspecific epitopes. Results of indirect immunofluorescence experiments showed that neither specific nor nonspecific epitopes of the 60-kDa protein were surface exposed on Legionella cells and that cross-reactive epitopes were variably exposed on non-Legionella bacteria. The 60-kDa protein antigen should be useful in diagnostic tests for legionellosis if care is taken to expose cryptic epitopes and if the tests use or measure only the Legionella-specific epitopes.
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PMID:Purified 60-kilodalton Legionella protein antigen with Legionella-specific and nonspecific epitopes. 244 17

Bacterial plasmids have become valuable markers for the comparison of strains of nosocomial gram-negative bacilli. The importance of plasmids in nosocomial infections is primarily due to their transferable antibiotic resistance genes (R plasmids), but other plasmid-mediated traits may eventually serve as potential markers. Stable cryptic plasmids have also served to relate outbreak strains, particularly nonfermenting strains of gram-negative bacteria. Klebsiella pneumoniae and Serratia marcescens have been the major plasmid-containing species in outbreaks involving single or multiple species. Outbreaks of single species with common plasmid patterns have included the Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Pseudomonas cepacia, Ewingella americana, and Legionella pneumophila. Intrageneric spread of the same or similar R plasmids has nearly always occurred within the Enterobacteriaceae in large medical centers or Veterans Administration hospitals. High-risk nurseries and burn units have been conspicuous foci for R plasmid evolution. Hospital epidemiologists and clinical microbiologists will likely have an ever-increasing need to determine the plasmid content of gram-negative bacilli producing endemic and epidemic nosocomial infections.
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PMID:Plasmids as epidemiologic markers in nosocomial gram-negative bacilli: experience at a university and review of the literature. 353 13

A naturally occurring suspension of Legionella pneumophila and associated microbiota contained three unidentified non-Legionellaceae bacteria which supported satellite growth of a subculture of L. pneumophila on an L-cysteine-deficient medium and another bacterium which did not support growth of the subculture. Washed suspensions containing 10(3), 10(5), 10(7), or 10(8) CFU of a mixture of isolates of these non-Legionellaceae bacteria failed to support the multiplication of an isolate of agar-grown L. pneumophila which had been washed and seeded into the suspensions. The suspensions which contained 10(3), 10(5), or 10(7) CFU of the non-Legionellaceae bacteria per ml appeared to enhance survival or cryptic growth of agar-grown L. pneumophila. A decline of 1.3 log CFU of L. pneumophila per ml occurred within the first week of incubation in the sample which contained 10(8) CFU of the non-Legionellaceae bacteria per ml. In contrast to these results, naturally occurring L. pneumophila multiplied in the presence of associated microbiota. The necessity to subculture L. pneumophila and the non-Legionellaceae bacteria on artificial medium to obtain pure cultures may have affected the multiplication of L. pneumophila in tap water. Alternatively, other microorganisms may be present in the naturally occurring suspension which support the growth of this bacterium.
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PMID:Effect of non-Legionellaceae bacteria on the multiplication of Legionella pneumophila in potable water. 400 34

A species-specific antigen in Legionella pneumophila was identified by a monoclonal antibody in enzyme-linked immunosorbent and immunofluorescence assays of serogroups 1 through 8. The species-specific antigen was heat stable, and the molecular weight of the major band was 29,000 by immunoblot analysis. In direct immunofluorescence assays, the antigen was cryptic or only partly exposed on the surface of the cells but was effectively exposed by treating the cells with detergent and EDTA. The monoclonal antibody was utilized in direct immunofluorescence assays to specifically identify multiple cultures of L. pneumophila serogroups.
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PMID:Identification of a species-specific antigen in Legionella pneumophila by a monoclonal antibody. 639 9

Sixteen strains from the six serogroups of Legionella pneumophila were examined for the presence of extrachromosomal genetic elements by a modified cleared lysate procedure, dye-buoyant centrifugation, and agarose gel electrophoresis. Two strains, Atlanta-1 and Atlanta-2 from serogroup II, each contained a plasmid of cryptic function with a molecular weight of ca. 30 megadaltons.
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PMID:A plasmid in Legionella pneumophila. 742 28

Derivatives of the self-transmissible F plasmid of Escherichia coli can be introduced into Legionella pneumophila by conjugation and maintained within only upon selection. In L. pneumophila. F-based replicons seem to exist as extrachromosomal elements since they were readily lost when F-containing L. pneumophila was grown on nonselective medium. The F-based plasmids were not self-transmissible in L. pneumophila. The mating defect may be due to an inability to form the F pilus since F-containing strains of L. pneumophila could neither be infected with the pilus-specific phage M13 nor transduced with f1-packaged ColE1 replicons. Currently, the most commonly used transfer system for introducing genetic information into L. pneumophila employs E. coli donors with a chromosomally integrated copy of RP4::Mu to mobilize plasmids bearing the RK2 origin of transfer (oriT). Use of this system to deliver TnphoA for mutagenesis of the L. pneumophila chromosome led to transconjugants that all contained cryptic DNA alterations that involved the plasmid RP4 and phage Mu. No TnphoA transposition was observed in L. pneumophila. The fact that F-mediated conjugation can be used to efficiently transfer plasmids containing the oriT of F to L. pneumophila provides an important alternative to the RP4-based plasmid transfer system and may avoid DNA anomalies in transconjugants that impede genetic analysis. Furthermore, our results demonstrate the promiscuous nature of the F conjugal transfer and replication systems.
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PMID:Escherichia coli F plasmid transfers to and replicates within Legionella pneumophila: an alternative to using an RP4-based system for gene delivery. 789 13

The function of phosphatidylcholine (PC) in the bacterial cell envelope remains cryptic. We show here that productive interaction of the respiratory pathogen Legionella pneumophila with host cells requires bacterial PC. Synthesis of the lipid in L. pneumophila was shown to occur via either phospholipid N-methyltransferase (PmtA) or phosphatidylcholine synthase (PcsA), but the latter pathway was demonstrated to be of predominant importance. Loss of PC from the cell envelope caused lowered yields of L. pneumophila within macrophages as well as loss of high multiplicity cytotoxicity, while mutants defective in PC synthesis could be complemented either by reintroduction of PcsA or by overproduction of PmtA. The lowered yields and reduced cytotoxicity in mutants with defective PC biosynthesis were due to three related defects. First, there was a poorly functioning Dot/Icm apparatus, which delivers substrates required for intracellular growth into the cytosol of infected cells. Second, there was reduced bacterial binding to macrophages, possibly due to loss of PC or a PC derivative on the bacterium that is recognized by the host cell. Finally, strains lacking PC had low steady-state levels of flagellin protein, a deficit that had been previously associated with the phenotypes of lowered cytotoxicity and poor cellular adhesion.
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PMID:Phosphatidylcholine synthesis is required for optimal function of Legionella pneumophila virulence determinants. 1797 85

The intracellular bacterial agent of Q fever, Coxiella burnetii, translocates effector proteins into its host cell cytosol via a Dot/Icm type IV secretion system (T4SS). The T4SS is essential for parasitophorous vacuole formation, intracellular replication, and inhibition of host cell death, but the effectors mediating these events remain largely undefined. Six Dot/Icm substrate-encoding genes were recently discovered on the C. burnetii cryptic QpH1 plasmid, three of which are conserved among all C. burnetii isolates, suggesting that they are critical for conserved pathogen functions. However, the remaining hypothetical proteins encoded by plasmid genes have not been assessed for their potential as T4SS substrates. In the current study, we further defined the T4SS effector repertoire encoded by the C. burnetii QpH1, QpRS, and QpDG plasmids that were originally isolated from acute-disease, chronic-disease, and severely attenuated isolates, respectively. Hypothetical proteins, including those specific to QpRS or QpDG, were screened for translocation using the well-established Legionella pneumophila T4SS secretion model. In total, six novel plasmid-encoded proteins were translocated into macrophage-like cells by the Dot/Icm T4SS. Four newly identified effectors are encoded by genes present only on the QpDG plasmid from severely attenuated Dugway isolates, suggesting that the presence of specific effectors correlates with decreased virulence. These results further support the idea of a critical role for extrachromosomal elements in C. burnetii pathogenesis.
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PMID:Refining the plasmid-encoded type IV secretion system substrate repertoire of Coxiella burnetii. 2368 69

Legionella pneumophila, the causative bacterium for Legionnaires' disease, hijacks host membrane trafficking for the maturation of the Legionella-containing vacuole (LCV). The LCV membrane mainly contains PtdIns4P, which is important for anchoring many secreted Legionella effectors onto the LCV. Here, we identify a cryptic functional domain (LepB_NTD) preceding the well-characterized RabGAP domain in the Legionella Dot/Icm type IV secretion system effector LepB. LepB_NTD alone is toxic to yeast and can disrupt the Golgi in mammalian cells. The crystal structure reveals an unexpected kinase fold and catalytic motif important for LepB_NTD function in eukaryotes. Cell biology-guided biochemical analyses uncovered a lipid kinase activity in LepB_NTD that specifically converts PtdIns3P into PtdIns(3,4)P2. PtdIns(3,4)P2 is efficiently hydrolysed into PtdIns4P by another Dot/Icm effector SidF that is known to possess phosphoinositide phosphatase activity. Consistently, SidF is capable of counteracting the cellular functions of LepB_NTD. Genetic analyses show a requirement for LepB kinase activity as well as lipid phosphatase activity of SidF for PtdIns4P biosynthesis on the LCV membrane. Our study identifies an unprecedented phosphatidylinositide 4-kinase activity from bacteria and highlights a sophisticated manipulation of host phosphoinositide metabolism by a bacterial pathogen.
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PMID:Modulation of membrane phosphoinositide dynamics by the phosphatidylinositide 4-kinase activity of the Legionella LepB effector. 2822 77


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