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Infection and Immunity, March 1999, p. 1025-1033, Vol. 67, No. 3
Biophysics Division, Indian Institute of
Chemical Biology, Calcutta 700 032, India
Received 2 September 1998/Returned for modification 9 November
1998/Accepted 8 December 1998
The dnaK gene of Vibrio cholerae was
cloned, sequenced, and used to construct a dnaK insertion
mutant which was then used to examine the role of DnaK in expression of
the major virulence factors of this important human pathogen. The
central regulator of several virulence genes of V. cholerae
is ToxR, a transmembrane DNA binding protein. The V. cholerae
dnaK mutant grown in standard laboratory medium exhibited
phenotypes characteristic of cells deficient in ToxR activity. Using
Northern blot analysis and toxR transcriptional fusions, we
demonstrated a reduction in expression of the toxR gene in
the dnaK mutant strain together with a concomitant increase
in expression of a htpG-like heat shock gene that is located immediately upstream and is divergently transcribed from toxR. This may be due to increased heat shock induction in
the dnaK mutant. In vivo, however, although expression from
heat shock promoters in the dnaK mutant was similar to that
observed in vitro, expression of both toxR and
htpG was comparable to that by the parental strain. In both
strains, in vivo expression of toxR was significantly
higher than that observed in vitro, but no reciprocal decrease in
htpG expression was observed. These results suggest that
the modulation of toxR expression in vivo may be different from that observed in vitro.
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Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Role of DnaK in In Vitro and In Vivo Expression of
Virulence Factors of Vibrio cholerae

*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Biophysics
Division, Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, 4 Raja S.C. Mullick
Road, Calcutta 700 032, India. Phone: 91 33 473 0350. Fax: 91 33 473 0350/5197. E-mail: iichbio{at}giascl01.vsnl.net.in.
Present address: Department of Cell Biology, Yale University School
of Medicine, New Haven, Conn.
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