Identification of Legionella pneumophila strains by polymerase chain reaction method which isolated from cooling tower water

We studied the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method with 5 strains of Legionella pneumophila serogroup 4, 7 strains of L. pneumophila serogroup 5, 7 strains of L. pneumophila UT and 15 strains of Legionella like organisms (LLO). We used mip-primers reported by Mahbubani et al and LEG-primers reported by Starnbach et al. Positive PCR results were obtained by all strains of L. pneumophila serogroup 4, L. pneamophila serogroup 5, L. pneumophila UT and 11 strains of LLO using mip-primers. Using LEG-primers, positive results were obtained by 2, 6, 5 and 8 strains respectively. All strains that showed positive results using LEG-primer PCR, were contained by the strains that showed positive results using mip-primer PCR. Conversely, there were some strains that were positive in mip-primer PCR and negative in LEG-primer simultaneously. Therefore, mip-primers is recommended to detect L. pneumophila in clinical specimens by PCR method.