Yang Q L, Gotschlich E C
Laboratory of Bacterial Pathogenesis and Immunology, Rockefeller University, New York 10021-6399, USA.
J Exp Med. 1996 Jan 1;183(1):323-7. doi: 10.1084/jem.183.1.323.
The lipooligosaccharide (LOS) expressed by gonococci spontaneously varies its structure at high frequency, but the underlying genetic mechanism has not been described. We have previously reported that the genes encoding the glycosyl transferases responsible for the biosynthesis of the variable alpha chain of the LOS of Neisseria gonorrhoeae are located in a locus containing five genes, lgtA, lgtB, lgtC, lgtD, and lgtE. Sequence analysis showed that lgtA, lgtC, and lgtD contained poly-G tracts within the coding frames, leading to the hypothesis that shifts in the number of guanosine residues in the poly-G tracts might be responsible for the high frequency variation in structure of gonococcal LOS. We now provide experimental evidence confirming this hypothesis.
淋球菌表达的脂寡糖(LOS)会自发地高频改变其结构,但潜在的遗传机制尚未得到描述。我们之前曾报道,编码负责淋病奈瑟菌LOS可变α链生物合成的糖基转移酶的基因位于一个包含五个基因(lgtA、lgtB、lgtC、lgtD和lgtE)的基因座中。序列分析表明,lgtA、lgtC和lgtD在编码框内含有多聚G序列,这导致了这样一种假说,即多聚G序列中鸟苷残基数量的变化可能是淋球菌LOS结构高频变异的原因。我们现在提供实验证据证实了这一假说。