Swanson J, Robbins K, Barrera O, Koomey J M
J Exp Med. 1987 Apr 1;165(4):1016-25. doi: 10.1084/jem.165.4.1016.
Pilus+ to pilus- phenotype change occurs in Neisseria gonorrhoeae through gene conversion of the gonococcus' complete, expressed pilin gene by nucleotides homologous to the pilS1 copy 5 partial pilin gene; assembly missense pilin is synthesized but pili are not. Reversion to pilus+ occurs by a subsequent recombinational event that replaces the complete pilin gene's pilS1 copy 5-like sequence with nucleotides from a different partial gene to effect expression of an orthodox (i.e., pilus producing) pilin. Sibling pilus+ revertants of common parentage can carry different sequences in their expressed pilin genes because they have undergone nonidentical gene conversion events such as recombinations with sequences from different partial genes, or recombinations with different length nucleotide stretches of the same partial gene; either can yield structurally and antigenically variant pilin polypeptides.
淋病奈瑟菌中菌毛阳性到菌毛阴性的表型变化是通过淋球菌完整的、表达的菌毛蛋白基因被与pilS1拷贝5部分菌毛蛋白基因同源的核苷酸进行基因转换而发生的；组装错义菌毛蛋白被合成，但菌毛未形成。通过随后的重组事件可恢复为菌毛阳性，该重组事件用来自不同部分基因的核苷酸取代完整菌毛蛋白基因的pilS1拷贝5样序列，以实现正统（即产生菌毛的）菌毛蛋白的表达。具有共同亲本的同胞菌毛阳性回复株在其表达的菌毛蛋白基因中可携带不同序列，因为它们经历了不同的基因转换事件，例如与来自不同部分基因的序列重组，或与同一部分基因的不同长度核苷酸片段重组；两者都可产生结构和抗原性不同的菌毛蛋白多肽。
