ArticleApplied and environmental microbiology2008
Packaging of live Legionella pneumophila into pellets expelled by Tetrahymena spp. does not require bacterial replication and depends on a Dot/Icm-mediated survival mechanism.
Article in Applied and environmental microbiology, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed, 101 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Tetrahymena predation drives adaptive evolution of Salmonella by disrupting O-antigen biosynthesis and upregulating transcriptional regulator csgD.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Analysis of the genes and mechanisms responsible for the cytotoxicity of theFrontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- The hidden dancers in water: the symbiotic mystery ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2025Review
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- Protozoan predation enhances stress resistance and antibiotic tolerance in Burkholderia cenocepacia by triggering the SOS response.The ISME journal · 2024Article
- Stagnation arising through intermittent usage is associated with increased viable but non culturableFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2023Article
- Risk Exposure toInternational journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Microbial warfare in the wild-the impact of protists on the evolution and virulence of bacterial pathogens.International microbiology : the official journal of the Spanish Society for Microbiology · 2021Review
- Marine Bacteria Display Different Escape Mechanisms When Facing Their Protozoan Predators.Microorganisms · 2020Article
- Evidence that Bacteria Packaging byMicroorganisms · 2020Article
- Role of amoebae for survival and recovery of 'non-culturable' Helicobacter pylori cells in aquatic environments.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2020Article
- Review
- Diverse effects of nitric oxide reductase NorV on Aeromonas hydrophila virulence-associated traits under aerobic and anaerobic conditions.Veterinary research · 2019Article
- Factors Mediating Environmental Biofilm Formation byFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2018Review
- From Many Hosts, One Accidental Pathogen: The Diverse Protozoan Hosts ofFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2017Review
- The Flagellar Regulon ofFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2017Review
- Packaging of Campylobacter jejuni into Multilamellar Bodies by the Ciliate Tetrahymena pyriformis.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2016Article
- Ciliate Paramecium is a natural reservoir of Legionella pneumophila.Scientific reports · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The freshwater ciliate Tetrahymena sp. efficiently ingested, but poorly digested, virulent strains of the gram-negative intracellular pathogen Legionella pneumophila. Ciliates expelled live legionellae packaged in free spherical pellets. The ingested legionellae showed no ultrastructural indicators of cell division either within intracellular food vacuoles or in the expelled pellets, while the number of CFU consistently decreased as a function of time postinoculation, suggesting a lack of L. pneumophila replication inside Tetrahymena. Pulse-chase feeding experiments with fluorescent L. pneumophila and Escherichia coli indicated that actively feeding ciliates maintain a rapid and steady turnover of food vacuoles, so that the intravacuolar residence of the ingested bacteria was as short as 1 to 2 h. L. pneumophila mutants with a defective Dot/Icm virulence system were efficiently digested by Tetrahymena sp. In contrast to pellets of virulent L. pneumophila, the pellets produced by ciliates feeding on dot mutants contained very few bacterial cells but abundant membrane whorls. The whorls became labeled with a specific antibody against L. pneumophila OmpS, indicating that they were outer membrane remnants of digested legionellae. Ciliates that fed on genetically complemented dot mutants produced numerous pellets containing live legionellae, establishing the importance of the Dot/Icm system to resist digestion. We thus concluded that production of pellets containing live virulent L. pneumophila depends on bacterial survival (mediated by the Dot/Icm system) and occurs in the absence of bacterial replication. Pellets of virulent L. pneumophila may contribute to the transmission of Legionnaires' disease, an issue currently under investigation.
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Registered trials
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