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PILIN GENE PHASE VARIATION OF MORAXELLA-BOVIS IS CAUSED BY AN INVERSION OF THE PILIN GENES JOURNAL OF BACTERIOLOGY Marrs, C. F., Ruehl, W. W., SCHOOLNIK, G. K., FALKOW, S. 1988; 170 (7): 3032-3039

Abstract

Moraxella bovis Epp63 can express either of two different pilin proteins, called alpha and beta. We have previously cloned and sequenced the beta-pilin gene and now report that DNAs isolated from bacteria expressing alpha pilin have hybridization patterns consistently different from those of bacteria expressing beta pilin. The phase variation between alpha- and beta-pilin gene expression appears to be associated with an inversion of about 2 kilobases of DNA, whose endpoints occur within the coding region of the expressed pilin gene. Comparisons of the beta-pilin gene sequence with those of well-studied bacterial inversion systems revealed a stretch of 58% sequence similarity (21 of 36 base pairs) between the left inverted repeat of the Salmonella typhimurium flagellar hin control region and the amino-terminal portion of the beta-pilin gene.

View details for Web of Science ID A1988P022600020

View details for PubMedID 2898471