Bacterial communities and culturable Legionella in premise plumbing systems in four European cities

Legionella spp. are Gram-negative, facultative, intracellular bacteria ubiquitous in freshwater and man-made water systems. Understanding the bacterial interactions underlying Legionella's success in aquatic environments could be beneficial for control. The aim of this study was to analyse by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing the bacterial communities of premise plumbing systems located in four European countries (Denmark, Poland, Italy and Greece) in relation to the presence or absence of culturable Legionella species.