Kreiswirth B N, Löfdahl S, Betley M J, O'Reilly M, Schlievert P M, Bergdoll M S, Novick R P
Nature. 1983;305(5936):709-12. doi: 10.1038/305709a0.
Toxic shock syndrome (TSS) is a complex of generalized symptoms caused by a local staphylococcal infection, and a circulating toxin is thought to be involved. Indeed, nearly 100% of TSS isolates produce an exoprotein, TSSE, that is thought to have an aetiological role on the basis of positive animal tests (refs 1,2 and F. Quimby, personal communication) and human serological data. Although the precise role of TSSE in TSS remains unclear (E. Kass, personal communication), no other staphylococcal factor has been implicated. Our preliminary studies of the genetics of TSSE production failed to demonstrate plasmid or phage involvement or linkage with known chromosomal genes (ref. 4 and B.N.K. et al., unpublished data); however, Schutzer et al. have found that most TSS strains harbour prophages with common plating characteristics and suggest that the toxin(s) involved in TSS are transmitted by lysogenic conversion. We show here that TSSE is not demonstrably transferred by lysogeny; moreover, we have cloned the gene and found that the cloned product is serologically and biologically indistinguishable from the native protein, and that the TSSE determinant is associated with a larger DNA segment that is absent or rearranged in TSSE- strains.
中毒性休克综合征（TSS）是由局部葡萄球菌感染引起的一组全身性症状，人们认为循环毒素也参与其中。实际上，几乎100%的TSS分离株都会产生一种外蛋白，即中毒性休克综合征毒素（TSSE），基于阳性动物试验（参考文献1、2以及F. 昆比的个人交流信息）和人类血清学数据，该毒素被认为具有病因学作用。尽管TSSE在TSS中的确切作用仍不清楚（E. 卡斯的个人交流信息），但尚未发现其他葡萄球菌因素与之相关。我们对TSSE产生的遗传学进行的初步研究未能证明质粒或噬菌体的参与，也未发现其与已知染色体基因的关联（参考文献4以及B.N.K.等人未发表的数据）；然而，舒策尔等人发现，大多数TSS菌株都含有具有共同平板培养特征的原噬菌体，并认为参与TSS的毒素是通过溶原性转变传播的。我们在此表明，TSSE不会通过溶原性明显转移；此外，我们已经克隆了该基因，发现克隆产物在血清学和生物学上与天然蛋白没有区别，并且TSSE决定簇与一个更大的DNA片段相关，该片段在不产生TSSE的菌株中不存在或发生了重排。
