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Infection and Immunity, December 2000, p. 6896-6902, Vol. 68, No. 12
0019-9567/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Nucleotide Sequence Analysis of Hypervariable Junctions of Haemophilus influenzae Pilus Gene Clusters

Timothy D. Read,dagger Sarah W. Satola, and Monica M. Farley*

Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia

Received 18 May 2000/Returned for modification 14 August 2000/Accepted 18 September 2000

Haemophilus influenzae pili are surface structures that promote attachment to human epithelial cells. The five genes that encode pili, hifABCDE, are found inserted in genomes either between pmbA and hpt (hif-1) or between purE and pepN (hif-2). We determined the sequence between the ends of the pilus clusters and bordering genes in a number of H. influenzae strains. The junctions of the hif-1 cluster (limited to biogroup aegyptius isolates) are structurally simple. In contrast, hif-2 junctions are highly diverse, complex assemblies of conserved intergenic sequences (including genes hicA and hicB) with evidence of frequent recombination. Variation at hif-2 junctions seems to be tied to multiple copies of a 23-bp Haemophilus intergenic dyad sequence. The hif-1 cluster appears to have originated in biogroup aegyptius strains from invasion of the hpt-pmbA region by a DNA template containing the hif-2 genes with termini in the hairpin loop of flanking intergenic dyad sequences. The pilus gene clusters are an interesting model of a mobile "pathogenicity island" not associated with a phage, transposon, or insertion element.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Atlanta VA Medical Center, Medical Research Service (151), 1670 Clairmont Rd., Decatur, GA 30033. Phone: (404) 728-7688. Fax: (404) 329-2210. E-mail: mfarley{at}emory.edu.

dagger Present address: The Institute for Genomic Research, Rockville, Maryland.

Infection and Immunity, December 2000, p. 6896-6902, Vol. 68, No. 12
0019-9567/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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