A lipoprotein signal peptide encoded by the staphylococcal conjugative plasmid pSK41 exhibits an activity resembling that of Enterococcus faecalis pheromone cAD1.
The traH gene of the staphylococcal conjugative plasmid pSK41 has recently been shown to encode a lipoprotein (N. Firth, K. P. Ridgway, M. E. Byrne, P. D. Fink, L. Johnson, I. T. Paulsen, and R. A. Skurray, Gene 136:13-25, 1993). Here we report that traH encodes a product recognized as a pheromone by Enterococcus faecalis cells harboring the conjugative plasmid pAD1. The mature traH product is not essential for this phenomenon, as expression of pheromone-like activity was found to require sequences encoding only the pro-TraH signal peptide.
Firth
N
N
School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Fink
P D
PD
Johnson
L
L
Skurray
R A
RA
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001422:Bacterial Adhesion; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D001483:Base Sequence; D003227:Conjugation, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D013293:Enterococcus faecalis / Q000737:chemistry; D008074:Lipoproteins / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D009842:Oligopeptides / Q000378:metabolism*; D010675:Pheromones / Q000378:metabolism*; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics*; D021382:Protein Sorting Signals / Q000235:genetics*; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000235:genetics
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D008074:Lipoproteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D009842:Oligopeptides; D010675:Pheromones; D021382:Protein Sorting Signals; C065598:TraH protein, Bacteria; C043691:cAD1 bacterial sex hormone