A cluster of cases of legionellosis have occurred in your neighborhood. People with the illness have cough, fever, shortness of
breath, chest pain and sometimes diarrhea. The illness is caused by the bacterium Legionella pneumophila, a facultative intracellular parasite that survives in certain ameba. The organism has an absolute requirement for L-cysteine. Typically, the organism is grown on buffered charcoal yeast extract (BCYE) agar. In some labs, samples containing suspected L. pneumophila are cultured on traditional BCYE medium as well as BCYE medium lacking L-cysteine. How would L. pneumohila be identified in this situation
The correct answer is - comparing the presence of an essential component of the L. pneumophila that is cysteine.
Explanation:
As we know that L-cysteine is essential for the organism L. pneumophila to grow its colonies. The identification is easy in this situation by comparing the two cultured on the traditional BCYE medium and BCYE medicum without L-cysteine.
Colonies that grow on traditional BYCE medium are likely L. pneumophila as they required L-cysteine but not on BYCE medium lacking cysteine.
