Legionella taurinensis sp. nov., a new species antigenically similar to Legionella spiritensis

1 Centre National de Référence des Legionella UPRES EA1655, Faculté de Médecine R.T.H. Laennec, 69372 Lyon cedex 08, France 2 Laboratoire des Radioisotopes et de Biochimie Moléculaire, Hôpital Edouard Herriot, 69437 Lyon cedex 03, France 3 Unité des Entérobactéries, Institut Pasteur, 75724 Paris cedex 15, France Author for correspondence: François Lo Presti. Tel: +33 478 77 86 57. Fax: +33 478 77 86 58. e-mail: derba{at}laennec.univ-lyonl.fr ABSTRACT A group of 42 Legionella -like organisms reacting specifically with Legionella spiritensis serogroup 1 antisera were collected throughout Europe by the Centre National de Référence (French National Reference Centre) for Legionella . This group of isolates differed somewhat from L. spiritensis in terms of biochemical reactions, ubiquinone content and protein profile. The latter two analyses revealed that one of these L. spiritensis -like isolates, Turin I no. 1 T , was highly related, but not identical to any of the red autofluorescent species of Legionella . In fact, this strain was the first of these particular isolates recognized to emit a red autofluorescence when exposed to UV light. Profile analysis of randomly amplified polymorphic DNA established that the red autofluorescent L. spiritensis -like isolates constituted a homogeneous group distinct from Legionella rubrilucens and Legionella erythra . DNA-DNA hybridization studies involving the use of S1 nuclease confirmed that the indicated group of isolates are a new species of Legionella , for which the name Legionella taurinensis is proposed with strain Turin I no. 1 T (deposited as ATCC 700508 T ) as the type strain. Key Words: Legionella taurinensis sp. nov. • taxonomy • identification The GenBank accession number for the sequence reported in this paper is AF037597 .