The genus Legionella includes waterborne gram-negative bacilli that occasionally cause pneumonia in humans. The number of species classified in the genus Legionella is steadily increasing and presently includes at least 52 species with 70 associated serogroups. Legionella pneumophila - the first Legionella species defined is still the dominating species among clinical isolates, but a high ratio of the recently defined species was found to be also associated with clinical cases. Among the most frequently occurring isolates is L. bozemanii serogroup 1.

The aim of this study was to investigate the chemical composition of lipids and fatty acids profile from the bacteria grown on artificial medium BCYE. The lipids and phospholipids were extracted with chloroform/methanol and separated into nonpolar and polar fraction by silicic acid column chromatography. The phospholipids composition was determined by two-dimensional thin-layer chromatography. Phospholipids were analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography coupled on-line with mass spectrometry (HPLC/ESI-MS) under-positive ionization mode. Identification of the individual phospholipid molecular species was based on the m/z ratio of their pseudomolecular ions, mostly sodium ion adducts and head group-specific up-front fragmentation products. Cardiolipin (CL), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylcholine (PC) were found to make up the phospholipids of the analyzed bacteria. Characteristic feature of L. bozemanii phospholipids was the presence of branched iso and anteiso fatty acids as well as cis-9-10-methylenehexadecanoic acid. The possible taxonomic implication of these data are discussed.

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