Brief Reports1 August 1979Flagella on Legionnaires' Disease Bacteria: An Interim ReportBERENICE M. THOMASON, B.S., FRANCIS W. CHANDLER, D.V.M., Ph.D., DANNIE G. HOLLIS, M.S.BERENICE M. THOMASON, B.S.Search for more papers by this author, FRANCIS W. CHANDLER, D.V.M., Ph.D.Search for more papers by this author, DANNIE G. HOLLIS, M.S.Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-91-2-224 SectionsAboutPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail ExcerptThe Legionnaires' disease (LD) bacterium, for which the nameLegionella pneumophilahas been proposed (1), is a small gram-negative microorganism that varies considerably in length depending upon its environment (2). Early investigators did not describe motility or the presence of flagella. While examining direct fluorescent antibody-stained smears of pure cultures of LD bacterium, we have observed fluorescent polar flagella on two stock strains (Bellingham 1 and Bloomington 2). We confirmed these observations by examining smears stained with either a silver-plating stain for flagella (3) or a simplified Leifson flagella stain (4). This observation prompted us to examine other strains of...