Legionella pneumophila is the etiological agent of Legionnaire’s disease and of the less acute disease Pontiac fever. This bacterium is present in fresh and artificial water environments where it replicates in protozoan hosts, but it is also able to colonize the respiratory tract causing disease. Analysis of the genome sequence of L. pneumophila revealed the presence of an unexpected high number and variety of eukaryotic-like proteins, predicted to be involved in the exploitation of the host by mimicking eukaryotic functions. The function and evolution of these proteins within the species L. pneumophila will be discussed.
Carmen Buchrieser obtained her Master in Biology from the University of Graz Austria and subsequently her Ph. D. in Microbiology from the University of Salzburg, Austria. She held a Research Associate position at the Food Research Institute at the University of Madison/USA and was then awarded a APART fellowship from the Austrian Academy of Science for a post doctoral research stay at the Institut Pasteur Paris, France. She is currently an Associate Professor at the Institut Pasteur and head of a research group working on intracellular pathogens. She has a long-standing research interest in the pathogenesis of infections caused by Listeria and Legionella, with a focus on genomics, functional genomics and cell biology.
Moderation: Professor Dr. Michael Hecker