Legionnaires’ Disease: State of the Art Knowledge of Pathogenesis Mechanisms of Legionella

Sonia Mondino (1) , Silke Schmidt (1, 2) , Monica Rolando (1) , Pedro Escoll (1) , Laura Gomez-Valero (1) , Carmen Buchrieser (1)

1 Biologie des Bactéries intracellulaires - Biology of Intracellular Bacteria
2 Collège Doctoral

Legionella species are environmental gram-negative bacteria able to cause a severe form of pneumonia in humans known as Legionnaires' disease. Since the identification of Legionella pneumophila in 1977, four decades of research on Legionella biology and Legionnaires' disease have brought important insights into the biology of the bacteria and the molecular mechanisms that these intracellular pathogens use to cause disease in humans. Nowadays, Legionella species constitute a remarkable model of bacterial adaptation, with a genus genome shaped by their close coevolution with amoebae and an ability to exploit many hosts and signaling pathways through the secretion of a myriad of effector proteins, many of which have a eukaryotic origin. This review aims to discuss current knowledge of Legionella infection mechanisms and future research directions to be taken that might answer the many remaining open questions. This research will without a doubt be a terrific scientific journey worth taking.

Keywords: eukaryotic-like proteins; Legionnaires' disease; free-living amoeba; Legionella

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]; Microbiology and Parasitology; Life Sciences [q-bio]; Cellular Biology

Sonia Mondino, Silke Schmidt, Monica Rolando, Pedro Escoll, Laura Gomez-Valero, et al.. Legionnaires’ Disease: State of the Art Knowledge of Pathogenesis Mechanisms of Legionella. Annual Review of Pathology: Mechanisms of Disease, 2020, 15 (1), pp.439-466. ⟨10.1146/annurev-pathmechdis-012419-032742⟩. ⟨pasteur-02565930⟩