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Infect. Immun., Jul 1997, 2640-2647, Vol 65, No. 7
CC McGowan, TL Cover and MJ Blaser
The adaptive mechanisms that permit Helicobacter species to survive within
the gastric mucosa are not well understood. The proton- translocating
F1F0-ATPase is an important enzyme for regulating intracellular pH or
synthesizing ATP in many other enteric bacteria; therefore, we used
degenerate primers derived from conserved bacterial F1F0-ATPase sequences
to PCR amplify and clone the gene (atpD) encoding the H. pylori F1F0-ATPase
beta subunit. The deduced amino acid sequences of the F1F0-ATPase beta
subunits from H. pylori and Wolinella succinogenes were 85% identical (91%
similar). To characterize a potential functional role of F1F0-ATPase in H.
pylori, H. pylori or Escherichia coli cells were incubated for 60 min in
buffered solutions at pH 7, 6, 5, or 4, with or without 100 microM N,N'-
dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCCD), a specific inhibitor of F1F0-ATPase. At pH
5 and 4, there was no significant decrease in survival of H. pylori in the
presence of DCCD compared to its absence, whereas incubation with DCCD at
pH 7 and 6 significantly decreased H. pylori survival. E. coli survival was
unaffected by DCCD at any pH value tested. We next disrupted the cloned
beta-subunit sequence in E. coli by insertion of a kanamycin resistance
cassette and sought to construct an isogenic F1F0-ATPase H. pylori mutant
by natural transformation and allelic exchange. In multiple transformations
of H. pylori cells grown at pH 6 or 7, no kanamycin-resistant F1F0 mutants
were isolated, despite consistently successful mutagenesis of other H.
pylori genes by using a similar approach and PCR experiments providing
evidence for integration of the kanamycin resistance cassette into atpD.
The sensitivity of H. pylori to DCCD at pH 7 and 6, and failure to recover
F1F0 H. pylori mutants under similar conditions, suggests that the function
of this enzyme is required for survival of H. pylori at these pHs.
Copyright © 1997, American Society for Microbiology
Analysis of F1F0-ATPase from Helicobacter pylori
Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee 37232-2605, USA. mcgowacc@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu
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