Haas R, Meyer T F
Max-Planck-Institut für Biologie, Tübingen, FRG.
Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek. 1987;53(6):431-4. doi: 10.1007/BF00415498.
The genome of Neisseria gonorrhoeae harbours many gene loci for the production of variant pili. Strain MS11 has two expression genes (pilE) with promoter and complete coding sequences. The remaining genes are silent (pilS) lacking the promoter and the conservative amino terminals coding sequences of pilin. The pilus genes consist of six variable minicassettes (mc's), that are flancked by strictly conserved sequences. Upon phase (P+ to P+) and antigenic (P+ to P-, or vice versa) transitions minicassettes from silent loci are transferred from silent pilus gene copies to the expression gene by gene conversion. P- variants resulting from such rearrangements still produce pilin mRNA as well as pilin, but only a few are found on the surface of those gonococci.
淋病奈瑟菌的基因组含有许多用于产生可变菌毛的基因位点。菌株MS11有两个带有启动子和完整编码序列的表达基因（pilE）。其余基因是沉默的（pilS），缺乏启动子和菌毛蛋白保守的氨基末端编码序列。菌毛基因由六个可变小盒（mc's）组成，其侧翼是严格保守的序列。在相转变（P+到P+）和抗原转变（P+到P-，或反之亦然）时，沉默位点的小盒通过基因转换从沉默的菌毛基因拷贝转移到表达基因。由这种重排产生的P-变体仍然产生菌毛蛋白mRNA以及菌毛蛋白，但只有少数存在于那些淋球菌的表面。
