{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,2]],"date-time":"2026-09-02T01:19:12Z","timestamp":1788311952676,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":72,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,12]],"date-time":"2025-12-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1765497600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"University of Perugia, Environment and Safety Office"},{"name":"Polish National Science Center","award":["2022\/47\/D\/NZ8\/00258"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2022\/47\/D\/NZ8\/00258"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Microorganisms"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Legionella pneumophila, a waterborne pathogen naturally present in freshwater and capable of colonizing artificial water systems, is responsible for Legionnaires\u2019 disease (LD), a severe form of pneumonia transmitted through inhalation of contaminated aerosols. Virulence of Legionella strains is affected by the plasticity of their genome, shaped by horizontal gene transfer and recombination events. Thus, contaminated water systems can host diverse Legionella populations with a distinct virulence potential. Here, we compare the genomic diversity of Legionella pneumophila strains isolated in water systems of academic buildings, together with their cytotoxicity and intracellular replication in THP-1-like macrophages. A six-year environmental surveillance revealed Legionella pneumophila contamination in 20 out of the 50 monitored sites, identifying five serogroups (sg) and 13 Sequence Types (STs). Phylogenetic investigations based on core genome multilocus sequence typing (cgMLST) and comparative genomics of representative isolates of each ST showed a broad diversity and a heterogeneous virulence repertoire, especially within the Dot\/Icm and Lvh secretion systems. Following macrophage infection, a strain-dependent cytotoxicity and intracellular replication was observed, underlying significant pathogenic diversity within the same species and stage-dependent infection dynamics. Together, these results showed strain-specific genetic and phenotypic virulence traits to be considered during risk assessment in environmental surveillance.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/microorganisms13122832","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,12]],"date-time":"2025-12-12T15:27:20Z","timestamp":1765553240000},"page":"2832","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Unravelling the Genomic and Virulence Diversity of Legionella pneumophila Strains Isolated from Anthropogenic Water Systems"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Sofia","family":"Barigelli","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology, University of Perugia, 06122 Perugia, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0386-3544","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Piotr","family":"Koper","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Institute of Biological Sciences, Maria Curie-Sk\u0142odowska University, 20-033 Lublin, Poland"},{"name":"Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Laboratory, Institute of Biological Sciences, Maria Curie-Sk\u0142odowska University, 20-033 Lublin, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2837-4517","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maya","family":"Petricciuolo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology, University of Perugia, 06122 Perugia, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Andrea","family":"Firrincieli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department for Innovation in Biological, Agro-Food and Forest Systems, University of Tuscia, 01100 Viterbo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8540-3084","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marta","family":"Palusi\u0144ska-Szysz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Institute of Biological Sciences, Maria Curie-Sk\u0142odowska University, 20-033 Lublin, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4983-1967","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ermanno","family":"Federici","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology, University of Perugia, 06122 Perugia, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Yakunin, E., Kostyal, E., Agmon, V., Grotto, I., Valinsky, L., and Moran-Gilad, J. 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