Serkin C D, Seifert H S
Department of Microbiology-Immunology, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Illinois 60611, USA.
J Bacteriol. 1998 Apr;180(7):1955-8. doi: 10.1128/JB.180.7.1955-1958.1998.
Variation of the pilus of Neisseria gonorrhoeae occurs by the recombination of silent pilin DNA sequences into the pilin expression locus. We have developed a quantitative, competitive reverse transcription-PCR assay which measures the frequency of pilin antigenic variation independently of changes in gonococcal colony morphology and have determined this frequency within a gonococcal population. We have also studied the frequency of antigenic variation during growth and have concluded that growth does not dramatically influence the frequency of pilin antigenic variation, although a reproducible, twofold increase is observed upon the transition into late log/stationary phase.
淋病奈瑟菌菌毛的变异是通过将沉默菌毛蛋白DNA序列重组到菌毛蛋白表达位点而发生的。我们开发了一种定量竞争性逆转录PCR检测方法,该方法可独立于淋球菌菌落形态的变化来测量菌毛蛋白抗原变异的频率,并已确定了淋球菌群体中的这一频率。我们还研究了生长过程中抗原变异的频率,并得出结论:生长不会显著影响菌毛蛋白抗原变异的频率,尽管在进入对数后期/稳定期时可观察到抗原变异频率出现了可重复的两倍增长。