Institute for Glycomics, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland, 4222, Australia.
Nat Rev Microbiol. 2010 Mar;8(3):196-206. doi: 10.1038/nrmicro2283. Epub 2010 Feb 8.
In several host-adapted pathogens, phase variation has been found to occur in genes that encode methyltransferases associated with type III restriction-modification systems. It was recently shown that in the human pathogens Haemophilus influenzae, Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Neisseria meningitidis phase variation of a type III DNA methyltransferase, encoded by members of the mod gene family, regulates the expression of multiple genes. This novel genetic system has been termed the 'phasevarion' (phase-variable regulon). The wide distribution of phase-variable mod family genes indicates that this may be a common strategy used by host-adapted bacterial pathogens to randomly switch between distinct cell types.
在几种宿主适应的病原体中，已发现与 III 型限制修饰系统相关的甲基转移酶基因发生了相位变异。最近的研究表明，在人类病原体流感嗜血杆菌、淋病奈瑟菌和脑膜炎奈瑟菌中，III 型 DNA 甲基转移酶的相位变异，由 mod 基因家族成员编码，调节多个基因的表达。这种新的遗传系统被称为“相位变子”（相位可变调控子）。广泛分布的相位可变 mod 家族基因表明，这可能是宿主适应的细菌病原体用来在不同细胞类型之间随机切换的常见策略。
