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Infection and Immunity, September 2001, p. 5864-5873, Vol. 69, No. 9
0019-9567/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/IAI.69.9.5864-5873.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Gene Cluster for Assembly of Pilus Colonization Factor Antigen III of Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli

Tooru Taniguchi,1,* Yukihiro Akeda,2 Ayako Haba,2 Yoko Yasuda,1 Koichiro Yamamoto,3 Takeshi Honda,2 and Kunio Tochikubo1

Department of Microbiology, Nagoya City University Medical School, Nagoya, Aichi 467-8601,1 Department of Bacterial Infections, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka 565-0871,2 and Department of Nutritional Science, Faculty of Health and Welfare Science, Okayama Prefectural University, Soja, Okayama 719-1179,3 Japan

Received 22 December 2000/Returned for modification 28 February 2001/Accepted 30 May 2001

The assembly of pilus colonization factor antigen III (CFA/III) of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) requires the processing of CFA/III major pilin (CofA) by a prepilin peptidase (CofP), similar to other type IV pilus formation systems. CofA is produced initially as a 26.5-kDa preform pilin (prepilin) and then processed to a 20.5-kDa mature pilin by CofP which is predicted to be localized in the inner membrane. In the present experiment, we determined the nucleotide sequence of the whole region for CFA/III formation and identified a cluster of 14 genes, including cofA and cofP. Several proteins encoded by cof genes were similar to previously described proteins, such as the toxin-coregulated pili of Vibrio cholerae and the bundle-forming pili of enteropathogenic E. coli. The G+C content of the cof gene cluster was 37%, which was significantly lower than the average for the E. coli genome (50%). The introduction of a recombinant plasmid containing the cof gene cluster into the E. coli K-12 strain conferred CFA/III biogenesis and the ability of adhesion to the human colon carcinoma cell line Caco-2. This is the first report of a complete nucleotide sequence of the type IV pili found in human ETEC, and our results provide a useful model for studying the molecular mechanism of CFA/III biogenesis and the role of CFA/III in ETEC infection.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology, Nagoya City University Medical School, Nagoya, Aichi 467-8601, Japan. Phone: 81-52-853-8166. Fax: 81-52-853-4451. E-mail: taniguti{at}med.nagoya-cu.ac.jp.

Infection and Immunity, September 2001, p. 5864-5873, Vol. 69, No. 9
0019-9567/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/IAI.69.9.5864-5873.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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