Abstract
Molecular typing of Legionella has two principal applications: local epidemiology (e.g., outbreak investigation) and global epidemiology (e.g., population dynamics). In 1986, a European working group on Legionella infection (EWGLI) was created for the surveillance of Legionnaires’ disease (LD) in Europe. This group has been tasked to develop, evaluate, and improve several Legionella typing methods. Most Legionella molecular typing methods are based on comparison of DNA-banding patterns or sequence comparison. One of these methods, based on sequence comparison, the sequence-based typing (SBT) appears to be a powerful tool for global epidemiology (rapidity, ease of results exchange, high inter-laboratory reproducibility). Using it for international surveillance allows observation that particular genotypes (ST1, ST23, ST40, ST47, etc.) could be spread worldwide and responsible for a large part of culture-proven LD cases. For local epidemiological purpose, several methods have demonstrated their efficiency (SBT, PFGE, MLVA), in some cases combining these methods could enhance their discriminatory index (e.g., SBT + MAb subgrouping + PFGE).
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Ginevra, C. (2013). Legionella pneumophila Typing. In: de Filippis, I., McKee, M. (eds) Molecular Typing in Bacterial Infections. Infectious Disease. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-62703-185-1_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-62703-185-1_15
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