Population structure of Environmental and Clinical Legionella pneumophila isolates in Catalonia.
Sci Rep
; 8(1): 6241, 2018 04 19.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-29674708
ABSTRACT
Legionella is the causative agent of Legionnaires' disease (LD). In Spain, Catalonia is the region with the highest incidence of LD cases. The characterisation of clinical and environmental isolates using molecular epidemiology techniques provides epidemiological data for a specific geographic region and makes it possible to carry out phylogenetic and population-based analyses. The aim of this study was to describe and compare environmental and clinical isolates of Legionella pneumophila in Catalonia using sequence-based typing and monoclonal antibody subgrouping. A total of 528 isolates were characterised. For data analysis, the isolates were filtered to reduce redundancies, and 266 isolates (109 clinical and 157 environmental) were finally included. Thirty-two per cent of the clinical isolates were ST23, ST37 and ST1 while 40% of the environmental isolates were ST284 and ST1. Although the index of diversity was higher in clinical than in environmental ST isolates, we observed that clinical STs were similar to those recorded in other regions but that environmental STs were more confined to particular study areas. This observation supports the idea that only certain STs trigger cases or outbreaks in humans. Therefore, comparison of the genomes of clinical and environmental isolates could provide important information about the traits that favour infection or environmental persistence.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Doença dos Legionários
/
Legionella pneumophila
/
Tipagem Molecular
Tipo de estudo:
Incidence_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Humans
País/Região como assunto:
Europa
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2018
Tipo de documento:
Article