NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Researchers have sequenced the entire genome of Legionella pneumophila and have uncovered several genes that could serve as new therapeutic targets, according to a report in the September 24th issue of Nature.
“We began sequencing the genome about 4 years ago,” senior author Dr. James J. Russo, from Columbia University in New York, told Reuters Health. “It is our hope that the findings will lead to a better understanding of the organism’s adaptability” and possibly new treatments, he added.
In the study, the researchers refer to L. pneumophila as the “accidental pathogen.” L. pneumophila is “an organism that normally lives in fresh water systems inside amoeba or other protozoa,” Dr. Russo explained. After entering the human respiratory tract, the organism may mistake the macrophages for amoeba and, in essence, become pathogens by accident, he said.
The new findings may help explain why the organism is able to survive in many different environments. Although “it’s difficult to go from identifying a gene, by homology, to knowing its absolute function...we did identify several genes for transporters that could play a key role” in the organism’s adaptability, Dr. Russo noted. “These genes might also explain why it is so difficult to eradicate L. pneumophila from plumbing systems.”
In future studies, Dr. Russo said his team would like to investigate “why certain Legionella strains and species are hardly, if ever, recovered from patients, whereas others, including L. pneumophila, are often recovered. So, to investigate this, we’re interested in sequencing the genomes of these other organisms.”
Source: Science 2004;305:1966-1968. [ Google search on this article ]
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