Free-living amoebae protecting Legionella in water: The tip of an iceberg?

Bacteria are a main food source for free-living amoebae inhabiting aquatic systems. Some bacteria however, have the ability to prevent intracellular d estruction and can survive and grow in amoebic cells as endosymbionts. Free -living amoebae are well adapted to their hostile environmental conditions and are resistant to both desiccation, elevated temperatures and various di sinfectants. For their endosymbionts, amoebae represent perfect vectors, pr oviding both protection against adverse environmental conditions and transp ortation. There is increasing interest in the potential role of free-living amoebae as reservoirs and vectors of pathogenic bacteria. The best known o f such pathogenic bacteria is Legionella, and several studies provide evide nce for the importance of the amoeba-bacterium relationship in the biology and epidemiology of pneumonia caused by this pathogen. Although the relativ e importance of endosymbiosis of this kind is unknown when it comes to othe r human bacterial infections and the exact role of amoebic hosts in bacteri al survival, multiplication and transmission in the environment is still po orly understood, naming free-living amoebae the "Trojan horses" of the micr obial world is appropriate.