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Infect. Immun., 06 1996, 2070-2078, Vol 64, No. 6
CL Pickett, EC Pesci, DL Cottle, G Russell, AN Erdem and H Zeytin
Campylobacter jejuni produces a toxin called cytolethal distending toxin
(CDT). The genes encoding this toxin in C. jejuni 81-176 were cloned and
sequenced. The nucleotide sequence of the genes revealed that there are
three genes, cdtA, cdtB, and cdtC, encoding proteins with predicted sizes
of 30,11-6, 28,989, and 21,157 Da, respectively. All three proteins were
found to be related to the Escherichia coli CDT proteins, yet the amino
acid sequences have diverged significantly. All three genes were required
for toxic activity in a HeLa cell assay. HeLa cell assays of a variety of
C. jejuni and C. coli strains suggested that most C. jejuni strains produce
significantly higher CDT titers than do C. coli strains. Southern
hybridization experiments demonstrated that the cdtB gene is present on a
6.0-kb ClaI fragment in all but one of the C. jejuni strains tested; the
cdtB gene was on a 6.9- kb ClaI fragment in one strain. The C. jejuni
81-176 cdtB probe hybridized weakly to DNAs from C. coli strains. The C.
jejuni 81-176 cdtB probe did not hybridize to DNAs from representative C.
fetus, C. lari, C. "upsaliensis," and C. hyointestinalis strains, although
the HeLa cell assay indicated that these strains make CDT. PCR experiments
indicated the probable presence of cdtB sequences in all of these
Campylobacter species.
Copyright © 1996, American Society for Microbiology
Prevalence of cytolethal distending toxin production in Campylobacter jejuni and relatedness of Campylobacter sp. cdtB gene
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Chandler Medical Center, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40536-0084, USA.
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