title: Pilin-gene phase variation of Moraxella bovis is caused by an inversion of the pilin genes.
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.
mesh_terms: D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D007446:Chromosome Inversion; D004262:DNA Restriction Enzymes; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D036781:Fimbriae Proteins; D010861:Fimbriae, Bacterial; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D007118:Immunoassay; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009016:Moraxella / Q000235:genetics*; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D036781:Fimbriae Proteins; D004262:DNA Restriction Enzymes