Summary
Gonococcal virulence is thought to rely on multiple phenomena to which antigenic variation of surface proteins as well as the production of an extracellular protease specific for human IgA1 can be accounted. The expression of pilin and opacity (Op) protein in Neisseria gonorrhoeae can be switched on and off and a single cell apparently has a whole repertoire of genes to express many serologically distinguishable protein types. In order to investigate the molecular mechanisms associated with this surface variability, we have cloned the genes for pilin and Op expression in Escherichia coli. Using these genes as probes in DNA filter hybridizations, we revealed two complex gene systems which undergo genomic reorganizations and/or gene conversions which occur concomitant to changes in the expression of these surface proteins. To study the role of IgA proteases in bacterial pathogenesis, we cloned the IgA protease gene of N. gonorrhoeae MS11. This clone promotes expression and extracellular secretion of active enzyme in E. coli and other gram-negative bacterial species.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Blake MS, Gotschlich EC (1983) Gonococcal membrane proteins: speculation on their role in pathogenesis. Prog Allergy 33: 298–313
Salit IE, Blake MS, Gotschlich EC (1980) Intra-strain heterogeneity of gonococcal pili is related to opacity colony variance. J Exp Med 151: 716–725
Swanson J (1978) Studies on gonococcus infection: XIV. Cell wall protein difference among colour/opacity colony variants of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Infect Immun 21: 292–302
Lambden PR, Heckels JE (1979) Outer membrane protein composition and colonial morphology of Neisseria gonorrhoeae strain P9. FEMS Microl Lett 5: 263–265
Walstad DL, Guymon LF, Sparling PF (1977) Altered outer membrane protein in different colonial types of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. J Bacteriol 129: 1623–1627
Kornfeld SJ, Plaut AG (1981) Secretory immunity and the bacterial IgA proteases. Rev Infect Dis 3: 521–534
Lambden PR, Robertson JN, Watt PJ (1980) Biological properties of two distinct pilus types produced by isogenic variance of Neisseria gonorrhoeae P9. J Bacteriol 141: 393–396
Swanson J, Kraus SJ, Gotschlich EC (1971) Studies on gonococcus infection: I. Pili and zones of adhesion: their relationship to gonococcal growth patterns. J Exp Med 134: 886–906
Kellog DS, Peacock WL, Deacon WE, Brown L, Pirkle CI (1963) Neisseria gonorrhoeae: I. Virulence genetically linked to colonal variation. J Bacteriol 85: 1274–1279
Heckeis JE (1981) Structural comparison of Neisseria gonorrhoeae outer membrane proteins. J Bacteriol 145: 736–742
James JF, Swanson J (1978) Studies on gonococcus infection: XIII. Occurrence of colour/opacity colonial variants in clinical cultures. Infect Immun 19: 332–340
Swanson J (1973) Studies on gonococcus infection: IV. Pili: their role in attachment of gonococci to tissue culture cells. J Exp Med 127: 571–589
Buchanan TM (1977) Surface antigens: pili. In: Roberts RB (ed) The Gonococcus. Wiley, New York, pp 255–272
McGee ZA, Stephens DS, Hoffmann LH, Schlech III WF, Horn RG (1983) Mechanisms of mucosal invasion by pathogenic Neisseria. Reviews of Infectious Diseases 5, Suppl 4: 708–714
Schoolnik GK, Tai JY, Gotschlich EC (1983) A pilus peptide vaccine for the prevention of gonorrhea. Prog Allergy 33: 314–331
Meyer TF, Billyard E, Haas R, Störzbach S, So M (1984) Pilus genes of Neisseria gonorrhoeae: Chromosomal organization and DNA sequence. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 81: 6110–6114
Lambden PR, Heckeis JE, James LT, Watt PJ (1979) Variations in surface protein composition associated with virulence properties in opacity types of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Gen Microbiol 114: 305–312
James JF, Lammel CJ, Draper DL, Brooks GF (1980) Attachment of Neisseria gonorrhoeae phenotype variants to eukaryotic cells and tissues. In: Danielson D, Normark S (eds) Genetics and immunobiology of pathogenic neisseria. University of Umea, Sweden, pp 213–216
Watt PJ, Ward ME (1981) Adherence of Neisseria gonorrhoeae and other Neisseria species to mammalian cells. In: Beachey E (ed) Bacterial adherence. Chapman and Hall, New York, pp 255–288
Swanson J (1980) 125I-labeled peptide mapping of some heat-modifiable proteins of the gonococcal outer membrane. Infect Immun 28: 54–64
Swanson J, Barrera O (1983) Immunological characteristics of gonococcal outer membrane protein II assessed by immunoprecipitation, immunoblotting, and coagglutination. J Exp Med 157: 1405–1420
Russell RBR, Johnson KG, McDonald IJ (1975) Envelope proteins in Neisseria. Can J Microbiol 21: 1519–1534
Lambden PR (1982) Biochemical comparison of pili from variants of Neisseria gonorrhoeae P9. J Gen Microbiol 128: 2105–2111
Meyer TF, Mlawer N, So M (1982) Pilus expression in Neisseria gonorrhoeae involves chromosomal rearrangement. Cell 30: 45–52
Stern A, Nickel P, Meyer TF, So M (1984) Opacity determinants of Neisseria gonorrhoeae: DNA sequence alterations associated with gene expression and chromosomal linkage to the gonococcal pilus gene. Cell 37: 447–456
Plaut AG, Gilbert JV, Artenstein MS, Capra JD (1975) Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Neisseria meningitides: Extracellular enzyme cleaves human immunoglobulin A, Science 190: 1103–1105
Plaut AG, Gilbert JV, Wistar R Jr (1977) Loss of antibody activity in human immunoglobulin A exposed to extracellular immunoglobulin A proteases of Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Streptococcus sanguis. Infect Immun 17: 130–135
Mulks HM, Kornfeld SJ, Plaut AG (1980) Specific proteolysis of human IgA by Streptococcus pneimoniae and Haemophilus influenzae. J infect Dis 141: 450–456
Koomey JM, Gill RE, Falkow S (1982) Genetic and biochemical analysis of gonococcal IgA1 protease: Cloning in Escherichia coli and construction of mutants of gonococci that fail to produce the activity. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 79: 7881–7885
Bricker J, Mulks MH, Plaut AG, Moxon ER, Wright A (1983) IgA1 proteases of Haemophilus influenzae: Cloning and characterization in Escherichia coli K-12. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 80: 2681–2685
Halter R, Pohlner J, Meyer TF (1984) IgA-protease of Neisseria gonorrhoeae: Isolation and characterization of the gene and its extracellular product. EMBO J 3: 1595–1601
Brinton CC, Bryon J, Dillon JA, Guerina N, Jakobson LJ, Kraus S, Labik A, Lee S, Levence A, Lim S, McMichael J, Polen S, Rogers K, To ACC, To SCM (1978) Uses of pili in gonorrhoeae control: role of bacterial pili in disease, purification and properties of gonococcal pili, and progress in the development of a gonococcal pilus vaccine for gonorrhea. In: Brooks, Gotschlich, Holmes, Sawyer, Young (eds) Immunobiology of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. American Society for Microbiology, Washington, pp 155–178
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1985 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Meyer, T.F. et al. (1985). Molecular Analysis of Virulence Determinants of Neisseria gonorrhoeae . In: Jackson, G.G., Thomas, H. (eds) The Pathogenesis of Bacterial Infections. Bayer-Symposium, vol 8. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-70351-5_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-70351-5_19
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-70353-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-70351-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive