Legionella ITS oligonucleotide microarray

In this report, we have developed a rapid oligonucleotide microarray detection technique to identify the most common ten Legionella spp.. The sensitivity of the detection was at 1.0 ng with genomic DNA or 13 CFU/100 mL with Legionella cultures. The microarray detected seven air conditioner-condensed water samples with 100% accuracy, validating the technique as a promising method for applications in basic microbiology, clinical diagnosis, food safety, and epidemiological surveillance. The phylogenetic study based on the ITS has also revealed interestingly that the non-pathogenic L. fairfieldensis is the closest to L. pneumophila than the nine other pathogenic Legionella spp.. We have sequenced and analyzed the 16S-23S rRNA gene internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of the ten Legionella spp. Based on the ITS regions, twenty-nine probes that reproducibly detected multiple Legionella species with high specificity were included in the array. A total of 52 strains, including 30 target pathogens and 22 non-target bacteria were used to verify the oligonucleotide microarray assay.