The First Case of Legionella nagasakiensis Isolation from Hot Spring Water

In August, 2010, strain HYMO-6 was isolated from a sample of hot spring water in Aomori, Japan. The 16S rDNA sequences (1,496bp) of this strain (accession number: AB597175) had a similarity of less than 96.6% to other Legionella species, prompting us to hypothesize that this strain might be a novel species belonging to the genus Legionella. However, in March of 2011, it was became clear that the HYMO-6 strain (=JCM 17450 =KCTC 23560 =DSM 24727) was Legionella nagasakiensis CDC-1796-JAP-ET (=ATCC BAA-1557T =JCM 15315T). When this strain was cultured on BCYEα agar at 36°C for 7 d, no long cells were observed. The dominant fatty acids of strain HYMO-6 were 16:1ω7c (32.4%), and the DNA G+C content was 42.0 mol%.