Identification of a novel two-partner secretion system from Burkholderia pseudomallei

Two adjacent genes, bpaA and bpaB, whose products display significant similarity to a number of two-partner secretion (TPS) systems have been identified in Burkholderia pseudomallei strain 08, but are absent from the closely related avirulent species B. thailandensis. They possess a number of sequen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Molecular genetics and genomics : MGG 2004-09, Vol.272 (2), p.204-215
Main Authors: Brown, N F, Logue, C-A, Boddey, J A, Scott, R, Hirst, R G, Beacham, I R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amino Acid Sequence
Animals
Bacteria
Bacterial Proteins - genetics
Bacterial Proteins - physiology
Base Sequence
Burkholderia pseudomallei
Burkholderia pseudomallei - genetics
Burkholderia pseudomallei - pathogenicity
Burkholderia pseudomallei - physiology
DNA, Bacterial - chemistry
DNA, Bacterial - genetics
Genes, Bacterial
Mice
Mice, Inbred BALB C
Molecular Sequence Data
Mutation
Nucleic Acid Conformation
Phenotype
Plasmids - genetics
Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
Virulence - genetics
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Summary:Two adjacent genes, bpaA and bpaB, whose products display significant similarity to a number of two-partner secretion (TPS) systems have been identified in Burkholderia pseudomallei strain 08, but are absent from the closely related avirulent species B. thailandensis. They possess a number of sequence features characteristic of TPS systems, including the presence of an NPNGI motif in a region of BpaA which strongly resembles a TPS secretion domain. BpaA is a very large protein (approximately 530 kDa) and contains three repeats, each 600-800-amino acids long. Putative membrane-spanning regions in BpaB were identified through alignment with TpsB family members, and this also revealed an N-terminal extension not found in other TpsB proteins. The bpaA gene was found to be absent from the majority of B. pseudomallei strains. It appears that bpaAB are located within a putative genomic island that is inserted in close proximity to a methionine tRNA(CAT)-encoding gene. Expression of BpaA was undetectable in cells grown in laboratory media. However, owing to the similarity of BpaA to known adhesin molecules, a potential role of BpaA in virulence was investigated in cell culture and in an animal model, but no evidence for such a role was found in these test systems.
ISSN:1617-4615
1617-4623
DOI:10.1007/s00438-004-1039-z