Species-specific detection of Legionella using polymerase chain reaction and reverse dot-blotting.

Legionella pneumophila and some other Legionella species are capable of causing Legionnaire's disease, a potentially fatal pneumonia. The identification of legionellae by standard laboratory techniques such as culture is difficult and time consuming. In the present work, the DNA sequence of the 23S-5S spacer region was determined for 43 Legionella isolates, and the sequence information was used to develop a species-specific detection system using PCR and reverse dot-blotting which employs just one PCR amplicon to perform genus- and species-specific detection. L. pneumophila serogroups 1-16 as well as 21 non-pneumophila isolates could be identified and differentiated at the species level using this system.