Legionella relative abundance in shower hose biofilms is associated with specific microbiome members.

are natural inhabitants of building plumbing biofilms, where interactions with other microorganisms influence their survival, proliferation, and death. Here, we investigated the associations of with bacterial and eukaryotic microbiomes in biofilm samples extracted from 85 shower hoses of a multiunit residential building. spp. relative abundance in the biofilms ranged between 0-7.8%, of which only 0-0.46% was . Our data suggest that some microbiome members were associated with high (e.g. ) or low (e.g. ) relative abundance. The correlations of the different variants (30 Zero-Radius OTUs detected) showed distinct patterns, suggesting separate ecological niches occupied by different species. This study provides insights into the ecology of with respect to: (i) the colonization of a high number of real shower hoses biofilm samples; (ii) the ecological meaning of associations between and co-occurring bacterial/eukaryotic organisms; (iii) critical points and future directions of microbial-interaction-based-ecological-investigations.