Authors: Masaki Fujita Tetsuhiro Moriya S Fujimoto Nobuyuki Hara Kazunobu Amako
Publish Date: 1997/03/04
Volume: 167, Issue: 4, Pages: 196-201
Abstract
The surface array protein SAP of Campylobacter fetus strain TK is encoded by seven homologous sapA genes clustered on the chromosomal DNA The spontaneously arising variant strain TKSAP– produces no SAP and carries an approximately 10kb chromosomal deletion To elucidate the mechanism underlying the loss of SAP synthesis we analyzed the region containing the sapA homologues and the deletion We constructed a physical map of the sapA cluster region by aligning the clones that contain sapA homologues These analyses demonstrated that all sapA homologues were located within a limited region of about 50 kb of chromosomal DNA of strain TK The TKSAP– deletion was located within this cluster and was 133 kb in size The deletion occurred between two sapA homologues and resulted in the formation of a chimeric sapA homologue in the variant strain Sequence analysis of the upstream regions and the conserved regions of all sapA homologues revealed a high degree of similarity However only one sapA homologue contained a putative promoter sequence This promoter sequence was located in the deleted region Thus the deletion of the promoter appears to be responsible for the loss of SAP expression in TKSAP–
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