Open AccessMicrobe Profile: Legionella pneumophila - a copycat eukaryote
Author(s) -
Hubert Hilbi,
Carmen Buchrieser
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.019
H-Index - 179
eISSN - 1465-2080
pISSN - 1350-0872
DOI - 10.1099/mic.0.001142
Subject(s) - legionella pneumophila , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , effector , protozoa , pathogen , intracellular parasite , horizontal gene transfer , legionella , facultative , bacteria , gene , genetics , phylogenetics , ecology
Legionella pneumophila is an environmental bacterium that parasitizes aquatic protozoa and uses the same processes to infect humans. The facultative intracellular pathogen causes a life-threatening pneumonia with possible systemic complications. The co-evolution with protozoa is reflected in an armoury of bacterial effectors, and many of these type IV-secreted proteins have likely been acquired by interdomain horizontal gene transfer (HGT) from hosts. The unique features of L. pneumophila are the largest bacterial effector repertoire known to date, subversion of virtually all eukaryotic signalling pathways and acquisition of eukaryotic enzyme activities used to manipulate the host cell to the pathogen’s advantage.