IAI FigSearch
Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Watson, W J
Right arrow Articles by Marrs, C F
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Watson, W J
Right arrow Articles by Marrs, C F

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Infection and Immunity, February 1994, p. 468-475, Vol. 62, No. 2
0019-9567/1994/$04.00+0     DOI:

research-article

Identification of a gene essential for piliation in Haemophilus influenzae type b with homology to the pilus assembly platform genes of gram-negative bacteria.

W J Watson, J R Gilsdorf, M A Tucci, K W McCrea, L J Forney, and C F Marrs

Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor.

ABSTRACT

Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) pili are complex filamentous surface structures consisting predominantly of pilin protein subunits. The gene encoding the major pilin protein subunit of Hib adherence pili has been cloned and its nucleotide sequence has been determined. In order to identify specific accessory genes involved in pilus expression and assembly, we constructed isogenic Hib mutants containing insertional chromosomal mutations in the DNA flanking the pilin structural gene. These mutants were screened for pilin production, pilus expression, and hemagglutination. Pili and pilin production were assessed by immunoassays with polyclonal antisera specific for pilin and pili of Hib strain Eagan. Hemagglutination was semiquantitatively evaluated in a microtiter plate assay. Six Hib mutants produced proteins immunoreactive with antipilin antiserum but no longer produced structures reactive with antipilus antiserum. In addition, the mutants were unable to agglutinate human erythrocytes. Nucleotide sequence analysis localized the insertion sites in the six mutants to 2.5-kb open reading frame upstream of the pilin structural gene and immediately downstream of an Hib pilin chaperone gene. The amino acid sequence encoded by this open reading frame has significant homology to members of the pilus assembly platform protein family, including FhaA of Bordetella pertussis, MrkC of Klebsiella pneumoniae, and the Escherichia coli assembly platform proteins FimD and PapC. This open reading frame, designated hifC, appears to represent a gene essential to Hib pilus biogenesis that has genetic and functional similarity to the pilus platform assembly genes of other gram-negative rods.

Infection and Immunity, February 1994, p. 468-475, Vol. 62, No. 2
0019-9567/1994/$04.00+0     DOI:




This article has been cited by other articles:



Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
J. Bacteriol. J. Virol. Eukaryot. Cell
Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. Clin. Vaccine Immunol. All ASM Journals

Copyright © 1994 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.