Significance of Duplicated Flagellin Genes in Campylobacter

Abstract

The complex flagellum of Campylobacter coli VC167 contains two highly related (98%) flagellin subunit proteins which are produced from two 92% homologous, tandemly orientated genes, flaA and flaB. Mutants expressing only flaA form a full-length flagellar filament that confers slightly less than wild- type motility to the bacterium. However, flagellin mutants expressing only flaB produce extremely short, truncated filaments, and are only slightly motile. We have shown that the presence of two essentially identical genes is advantageous, in that flaAflaB+ mutants become highly motile upon passage by an event which allows the production of a full length simple flagellar filament containing a single FlaA-FlaB chimeric flagellin protein. Furthermore, we have demonstrated that the reassortment of DNA that results in this chimeric protein can occur by two mechanisms: intragenomic recombination and transformation-mediated intergenomic recombination.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1993
Accession Number
ADA266513

Entities

People

  • Patricia Guerry
  • Richard A. Alm
  • Trevor J. Trust

Organizations

  • Naval Medical Research Center

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Amino Acids
  • Bacteria
  • Bacterial Proteins
  • Biomedical Research
  • Cell Physiological Processes
  • Cells
  • Cellular Structures
  • Coding
  • Coliphages
  • Escherichia Coli
  • Filaments
  • Genes
  • Guillain-Barre Syndrome
  • Pathogenic Bacteria
  • Protein Sequence Analysis
  • Proteins

Fields of Study

  • Biology

Readers

  • Immunology
  • Microbial Pathology
  • Molecular and genetic basis of cancer.