Taylor R K, Miller V L, Furlong D B, Mekalanos J J
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1987 May;84(9):2833-7. doi: 10.1073/pnas.84.9.2833.
The transposon TnphoA was used to generate fusions between phoA, the gene for alkaline phosphatase (PhoA), and genes encoding proteins that are secreted by Vibrio cholerae. One of the PhoA+ mutants isolated showed a dramatic reduction in its ability to colonize the intestines of suckling mice. This mutant no longer produced a 20.5-kDa protein (TcpA) that we show is the major subunit of a V. cholerae pilus. Amino-terminal sequence analysis of the TcpA pilus subunit showed that it shares amino acid homology with the pilins produced by several other pathogenic bacteria. The TcpA pilus was coordinately expressed with cholera toxin under various culture conditions, and this effect appeared to be dependent on the transcriptional activator encoded by the toxR gene. We conclude that the toxR gene plays a central role in the transcriptional regulation of multiple virulence genes of V. cholerae.
转座子TnphoA用于在碱性磷酸酶（PhoA）基因phoA与编码霍乱弧菌分泌蛋白的基因之间产生融合体。分离得到的一个PhoA+突变体在定殖于乳鼠肠道的能力上显著降低。该突变体不再产生一种20.5 kDa的蛋白质（TcpA），我们证明它是霍乱弧菌菌毛的主要亚基。TcpA菌毛亚基的氨基末端序列分析表明，它与其他几种致病细菌产生的菌毛蛋白具有氨基酸同源性。在各种培养条件下，TcpA菌毛与霍乱毒素协同表达，这种效应似乎依赖于toxR基因编码的转录激活因子。我们得出结论，toxR基因在霍乱弧菌多个毒力基因的转录调控中起核心作用。
